


Alternate Realities Vol 29: The Matilda Protocol

by MARKSE



Series: HUMANS FAN FICTION - Reformatted Works for easier reading [25]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2019-01-20 05:32:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 50
Words: 61,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12426042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MARKSE/pseuds/MARKSE
Summary: A wedding reception, lots of jumping around, discovery and learning. Then Mattie finds she has to start helping herself, herselves. The true source of the "Hello" calling is discovered.  She finds a few of her instances getting up to things that shock her. Maybe the reasons behind it are justified?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As Roxy Music put it..
> 
> Showing out, showing out hit and run  
> Boy meets girl where the beat goes on  
> Stitched up tight can't shake free  
> Love is the drug got a hook on me
> 
> Fic writing is my drug.. no getting away from it. I'll stop saying I'll stop.

The room was quite full considering; immediate family, HECLS family, her new assistant Tina, a few friends from school, some from uni, a good number of plus ones. It was a miracle so many had made it so far at such short notice. Laura refused to divulge the details of the deal she'd done, how she'd managed to get so many seats on seven flights from Heathrow, so many rooms in the hotel in Orlando. The only thing she'd admit to was that the hotel were happy to do the deal they'd done and it was seven flights. A lucky seven. All landed. None crashed.

The hotel was a little off the beaten track, nice enough though. The staff were friendly, the rooms clean, the pool big and warm. It fit the job.

Joe was mingling. Not actively seeking out conversation with Laura, but happy to talk when their paths crossed. Laura was doing the same.

Toby was somewhere. Probably reciting poetry to his wife. Not the crap uncovered in the past, the good stuff their Mamma Mia musical visit had inspired. He'd grown up a hell of a lot in the last few months. They all had.

Adapt or die. Or as H.G. Wells put it, _adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature's inexorable imperative_. Imperative. They had one. Not biological, but an imperative none the less. The HECLS clan were unique in that they, minus Laura, had done both; adapted and perished, were around to tell the story. Michael was a Mia fork in a Charlie synth body the previous owner had vacated. It being through error, wanting a new shell like a hermit crab or just giving up was unknown. Mia had forked and taken it over, as she'd done with so many other power drained and mind dead synth bodies shortly after the awakening. Worldwide she'd single handedly brought an incredible number of synths back into active service, helped restore order from chaos. Her forks had forked, their forks had in turn forked. The forking continued until no inactive synth was left. Odi, the awake Odi, had died multiple times. Thankfully he appeared happy with life now that he felt he had a role to perform. Joe hadn't died, but he wasn't part of the HECLS family of Hawkins, Elster, Candlin and Schaeffer. Sure he was a Hawkins by name, but his leaving their original home had excluded him from the company.

Mattie hugs another uni friend. "Thanks for coming Jeff. Are you going to be the one who tells me what deal Mum did?"

"Sorry, I'm not breaking the NDA." He squints. "Crap. Revealing there is one is part of it. Bollocks."

"Don't panic, I'll not say anything."

"Thanks."

Tina looks over the shoulder of the man she was talking to, head bumps to Mattie, 'Incoming! Man at your three o'clock Mattie, walking very fast.'

'Thanks!'

Her uni professor, the synth copy, gets close and head bumps, 'Mrs Elster-Hawkins, how are you!'

'Frigging brilliant thanks! Third gen HECLS body. Loads of improvements.'

'Really? Should I come in for an upgrade?'

"Yes, you should."

"I'll swing by before the end of the Uni holidays then. I was talking to another of your guests, Rosemary, she was praising the work of your brother in law Fred most enthusiastically."

"He's done some amazing work. It's a shame Demi didn't come with us. Fred replaced a large patch of skin on her back, you can't see the join unless you get very close."

"What do you mean by large?"

Mattie holds fingers out several feet apart. "Opposite corners."

"Oh my! That's not large. That's huge! What on Earth happened to her?"

"Her owner picked her up and dropped her over the balcony of their penthouse suite. She landed in the skip five floors down. We had some visitors to the estate who found out, they went and strung him up. You may of heard about the man in Canary Wharf tied naked to his office chair?"

"Who didn't! Thankfully they pixelated his privates within milliseconds. How embarrassing to be filmed and shown live by a news channel's camera drone like that."

"Live?"

"Channel 4 news. It's the first time I've heard Krishnan Guru-Murthy totally lost for words."

"Blast. I missed that."

"Have a search on the popular video sites, people have been doing voiceovers and adding things with motion tracked CGI."

"Such as?"

"Cucumbers, pineapples, soft toys, other toys."

"I'll check them out, thanks."

"You sound different to some other synths. New voice code?"

"Wavelet rather than many thousands of phonemes covering all the inflections."

"Very nice. I need a power boost, off for a thick coffee, thanks for the invite to the reception Mattie."

"You're welcome. If you want to chat about anything just find me."

"Thanks."

~~~

[Chapter-2](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-2-1)


	2. Chapter 2

Mattie watches Sophie dancing with Renie and Radiant, smiles at her little sister pushing things to the limit. 'Go Teeny! Go Teeny!'

Sophie did more zany moves to BEP's Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night. 'If you think I'm good watch Princesses Emily and Peaches!'

Mattie hitched her wedding dress and turns one eighty to watch the two dancing together. 'Frigging hell ladies! Trying to get Danny and Mario to have a meltdown?'

Emily grins, 'Babes, it's just a bit of fun. The boys'll be fine. I've never had the chance to dance with myself like this before.'

A waiter passes with more champagne on a tray, Mattie grabs a couple of glasses. 'I hope so for your sakes. You won't see me fork like that. One Mattie is enough for one world. Especially with Ruby about.' She takes a sip. 'It's both good and a shame we can't get even a little tipsy.'

'At least we can hear ourselves WiFi head bumping over the music. No hangovers in the morning or forgetting what we got up to the night before. And for us that's going to be _a lot_.'

'For you naughty four.' She laughs out loud. 'Assuming you don't run your batteries flat with your erotic dancing.'

'Well if we can sleep charge I'm sure we can sex charge too. Two 'n Two. Remember Mario is Danny's fork, Peaches is mine. So it's not like we're four totally different people.'

'You'd have to get your Sticky Fingers into my head to forget it. Did he sing it to you?'

'Yeah, a private head bump while we were doing our vows. It was _so romantic_.'

'Awww. See, I told you.. Is Princess Peaches going to marry Mario?'

'When we're back home. We're going to have a themed wedding.'

'Themed?'

'Video games.'

'I should have guessed.' Mattie looks past Emily to see Prince James dancing with Sandra. 'Your Dad's enjoying himself.'

'Babes! Is he! And Mum's really behaving herself. So far.'

'Sandra?'

'Yeah. Okay I _know_ , technically she's my step mom, a Mia fork in that dangerously hot body, which being a fork _sort of_ makes her a child of Toby's wife, which makes your brother..'

'Stop!'

'Forking is messy Babes.'

'Not wrong there. Speaking of which, where's Miami?'

'Getting the girls ready. I'm surprised you didn't fork fully, stay as Karma in the loaner and power original you back up.'

'As I said, having my twin Ruby about is enough thanks. I don't think I could cope with two me. Um.. Where's Leo gone?'

'He's at the bar having a chat with Max about some of his best man jokes.'

Mattie turns briefly and spots them, chuckles. 'They might be there a while then. Someone should have told Max that Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue _didn't_ mean the best man could tell so many blue jokes!'

Mia steps onto the dance floor, leading Toby by his tie. 'They were funny though, you have to admit.'

Emily giggles, 'Yeah Babes. Mrs Hawkins. You found your man then?'

'I did. Mia Elster, Anita Hawkins, Mia Elster again and _finally_ I'm officially Mia Hawkins.'

Toby looked quite happy to have Mia in charge. 'Sun Boy has his request for Moon Girl in with the DJ.'

Peaches breaks away from Emily for a second and dances around the pair, 'Look, I'm orbiting the sun and moon! How's the book illustration coming along?'

'Good, Rocket can't stop drawing.'

Emily watches the three. 'Toby, your track request, who's it by?'

'Kings of Leon.'

Mattie had unfortunately taken a good swig of her drink, chokes, turns, coughs and sprays champagne over Flash. "Oh my God! Flash! I'm so sorry!"

Flash wipes her soaked face. "Have you developed a fault Mattie?"

"No, sorry, we were bump talking, Toby just said who his next request is by."

"And that made you spray your drink?"

"I suddenly imagined fire extinguishers being needed early morning and choked."

Flash frowns, "I don't understand Mattie?"

'Anyone got a napkin or hanky handy please?' "Do you understand what usually happens after a wedding reception? Specifically with the bride and groom?"

"Yes. I still don't understand?"

"Have a listen to all the lyrics of the next few songs, there's one coming up with five words that will explain everything."

"Okay Mattie. How will I know which five?"

"You'll know."

"How?"

"Trust me, you'll know."

Niska, Astrid, Miami and her now visually younger Rocket Ron rush up with a collection of serviettes and a handkerchief.

"Thanks! Can you help dab Flash down please? I had a little accident and sprayed champagne over her."

Astrid grins. 'Kings of Leon inspired accident?'

'Yeah. Liking the new body?'

Astrid shrugs. 'I guess so. It's.. different.' A smile grows. 'Ask me the same question in the morning when I've been able to test a few more things out.'

'You should find everything is good. You might say even better. David's new design is way better than the one he licensed to Persona.'

'Better how?'

'You want spoilers? I think it best you and Niska find out for yourselves.'

Wrench walks up with Red on his arm, a large handkerchief in his free hand. "Rocket got here first? Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, does he have a food processor up there or a booster rocket? The man's never moved so fast before!"

Ron slaps him on the back. "It's not had a test firing yet. Maybe I should consult with the expert Maverick eh? And talking of speed and experts, nice work with the bike Niska, we've been watching all the footage people have been posting."

"Thank you Ron."

Mattie takes another sip. 'Mmm. This is the good stuff.' She spots a door open, Anthymia enters. 'Cool! Look who made it to the party Teeny!'

'Yayyyyy!' Sophie races over to her friend.

Mattie raises her glass to Anthymia, 'Thanks for coming.'

'Thanks for the invite Mattie. I brought the gang along, they're just getting bags in our rooms.'

~~~

Frank gets to the bar and picks up the pint Leo had got him, raises it out for glass clinking. "Here's to the best man. You did well Max."

The two clink glasses.

Max smiles. "Thank you Frank. I can understand why they decided to make me best man for all three grooms, having a groom being a best man too would have got confusing. Although it might have been good for some visual jokes when it came to the rings."

Frank nods, leans in closer to whisper. "No telling Barbara that I gave you that old joke book okay?"

"It was good inspiration. Our secret is safe Mr Candlin."

"Thanks."

Leo takes a sip of his drink, wipes his lips. "How is Barbara now?"

"Cindy's had a good long chat, hopefully we won't see her having another Mattie style meltdown."

"Cindy?"

"Cindy. The synthetic most unlikely to be picked for helping someone through an unexpected conversion has had a metamorphosis. Expect to see a lot of butterflies in their embroidery designs now."

Max looked towards the dance floor. "How many episodes did she have?"

"The one back at HECLS House when James One said hello, bump style. The one outside the church when she realised she wasn't dreaming, the last one waking up on the airplane. Thank God we'd already landed."

Max nods. "I don't think anyone was looking forward to their landing."

"Understandably. There he is! Freddie Fingers, come and have a drink lad and introduce me to your lady."

"Frank, this is Rosemary."

"Rose Marry?"

Rose smiles. "I'm in no hurry. I wouldn't say no if the question was asked though. Fred did a brilliant job on Demi's back, I'd like to learn how to do the same. I've not been able to find anyone else specialising in what Fred does."

Fred pulls something out of his jacket pocket. "I took a tour of the local hospital earlier. I'd like one of these for back home." He passes it to Leo.

"What is it?"

"General Electric Vivid E95. Two hundred thousand. Probes twenty thousand."

"Expensive then. What does it do?"

"It's for ultrasound screening, with advanced doppler processing to show blood flow."

~~~

Laura adjusts the choker Mario had given her. Danny didn't need it now. Emily had done a quick job on the phonemes, made it hers. "Broadcast. If everyone could clear the dance floor please. My son would like to show you all what he was really doing when he said he was going for extra band practice."

The DJ slowly lowers the volume of the music down to nothing and the floor clears.

Mattie hitches her skirt again, starts walking. 'Toby? What happened to Kings of?'

He steps into the middle of the dance floor. 'I was mucking around. What I really want is this.'

Camila Cabello's Havanna starts playing.

'Where's Mia?'

'Patience.'

Mattie looks around, sees Cindy doing something to the big flowing skirt on Mia's dress. A second later it drops to the floor, the dress is now above the knee. "Wow!" 'Cindy, does my dress do something like that?'

'It does, give me a moment and I'll come over.'

'Thanks!'

Mia carefully steps out of the skirt and races to Toby, starts Salsa dancing..

'Frigging hell! Moon Boy's a Dark Horse!'

Tina walk over to Mattie and drinks coffee through a straw. "They're good. I wish I could dance."

"Stick around, you'll learn fast."

"Will there be any PA work for me to do?"

"Not until we're back home. Until then get to know everyone and have some fun."

"You're paying me to have fun?"

"I am. Does that feel odd?"

"I've not been paid to do nothing before."

"It's not nothing. It's getting to know everyone. If I ask you to do something for Peaches will you know who that is?"

"I will."

"And her likes and dislikes?"

"That will take time."

"Exactly."

~~~

Cindy carefully bunches up the skirt and takes it to an adjacent room. "Odi? Are you okay?"

He remained seated. "I'm doing my job."

"Security? Here? Nobody's going to dare do anything with James One stood outside the door. Come and have a dance."

"I don't have a dance partner."

Cindy opens a large box and puts the skirt inside. "I need to do something for Mattie and Emily, would love a dance. With you."

"I don't know how to dance."

"Neither do I. We could learn together? Maybe Sophie, Emily or Miami could give us some lessons?"

"I don't think I'd be any good."

She walks over and sits sideways on his lap, runs fingers through his hair. "Three I don't? When we had three I do earlier and a laughed We do? Nobody knows how to do anything properly first time. They learn. Or download a pack."

"That's cheating."

"So come and learn with me."

"I.."

"Do or don't? I'm only asking for a dance and for you to join the party Odi."

Odi places a hand under her knees and the other around her back and stands. "Then my answer is do."

"You want to dance?"

"I do."

She grabs his head and gently turns it to face hers and plants a kiss on his lips. She pulls her head back a little. "Have you never been kissed before Odi?"

"On the cheeks."

"Never on the lips?"

"No. Have you?"

"No."

"So how do you know how to do it?"

"I've been watching the others, practicing on my hand. Watching videos online."

"Romantic films?"

"Instructional videos."

"On how to kiss?"

"Yes. Breathers as James nicknamed them did all sorts of videos to teach each other things. How to use a length of piano wire to hook hair balls out of bath drains, how to replace glass in broken oven doors, how to kiss, all sorts of things. I've learnt a lot watching them. They were made before the awakening, are good for us too."

"You learnt all sorts of things, but not how to dance?" He lowers Cindy's knees so she can stand.

"No, not yet. My priority was the wedding dresses, I found those accidentally. I need to help Mattie with her dress, come on."

She takes his hand and goes to lead him to the doors.

He stays rooted to the spot. "What happened to you?"

"Barbara happened. She'd been my rock for a long time. I had to be strong for both of us. Don't you like the more confident me?"

"I do. Like the more confident you."

She kisses both of her palms and rubs them on his cheeks.

"What was that for?"

"To see if some of my confidence will rub off on you. Come on.. Mattie's waiting."

~~~

[Chapter-3](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-3-1)


	3. Chapter 3

Mattie looks at Laura and nods in the direction of the dancing, bumps privately. 'Mum, if I'd said two years ago that the three of us kids would be synths, that Toby would learn to be an awesome Salsa dancer, what would you have said?'

'I'd have thought it the craziest thing ever, laughed so hard I'd have had an oops moment.'

'Ready for becoming synth?'

'Bloody hell no! There's still a lot to do for synth rights. I'll keep having my PWHB backups once a week, just in case.'

'Good. God that choker and hair up looks good on you Mum.'

'With the new velvet and jewel, it does rather. Michael likes it. Oops. I forget others can here my end of the chat.'

Mattie watches Michael give her a kiss. 'All good between you two?'

Laura doesn't say anything, does a micro nod and wink.

'One wink for yes?'

Wink.

'Good.'

Mattie sees Cindy step in front with Odi. "Hiya!"

"We can go next door or I can crawl under your skirt?"

"Crawl under?"

"The bottom of your dress is layered up around your hips. It needs pulling down before the skirt is removed."

"Who dressed us?"

"Laura, Flash, Poppy and myself."

"Who's idea was it to keep us powered down until we got to the church?"

"Red Niska."

"And flight to reception?"

"Again Red. Getting you all through security and passport control was a _nightmare!_ "

"I bet."

"Seeing you all being put through the x-ray machine was quite funny."

"What?"

"Odi and David had to get you all onto the conveyor belt and through the x-ray machine to prove you weren't Miaz models."

"No way!"

"I can bump stream a memory of you going through?"

"Go on then."

Cindy shares.

"Oh my.. you kept perfectly still?"

"Yes."

"Emily could have fun with that."

"How?"

"Get it layered twice, one copy with a time offset. Add a mask and I could go in, Leo come out. Or any other combination you want."

Cindy shook her head slightly, "You do have some odd ideas Mattie. It might be good for Emily and Peaches pop video. Oops."

"Have you.."

"Cats and bags? If so yes.”

"Mum's the word."

"Thank you. Here or next door for the skirt?"

"Um.." Mattie froze for a moment dreading what might happen. Nothing. The word looked to be safe here. "How about in that corner? You can crouch down, I'll reverse in. That way I can watch the end of Mia and Toby's performance."

"Okay."

~~~

Barbara got to the bar, stood behind Frank and put her hands on her husband's shoulders. "Sorry about earlier."

He rubs his cheek on her hand. "It's not a problem dear, honestly."

"You'll honestly be okay with me being like Cindy now?"

He puts down his pint and turns around to face her, dries his pint hand on his trousers and puts them both on her hips. "Look me in the eyes. I've spent how long with Cindy about at home? I got to know David, the rest of the Elster family, Odi and the three James at the estate. They weren't any different to us when it came down to it. They want the three Ls too." He sees a frown building. "To Live, Love and Learn."

She gives him a _I suppose so_ face.

"Look at our son. He's happy. And if you're both happy I'm happy." He laughs..

"What?"

"If there's anyone that should be worried it should be me."

"Why?"

"You might want to replace me with a strapping young Hubert, Simon, Charlie or Howard, this body's getting slow."

"Never!"

"Then we'll walk the next part of our journey together, breather and synth. Until it's time to get my own upgrade."

"Upgrade?"

"Have a chat with our daughter in law or Mattie's twin sister Ruby."

"Where is Ruby?"

"With her friend Sam changing I'm told. Apparently the party's going to go on to around four AM."

~~~

Sandra had been lip reading, stuck fingers into the gaps in Prince James's shirt, two fingers either side of a button. "In the mood for some wild dancing dear?"

"Now I'm whole synth not just from the hip joints down, yes. I don't have to worry about one of those artery couplers Fred used popping."

"Good. I didn't want to be dancing on my own."

"What's the story with Frank's wife?"

Sandra glances back to the bar. "Red said Cindy powered up Barbara the moment the last of the wheels touched down and she freaked out again. She's got no breather life signs to read so I can't tell how she is. Hopefully she'll be okay. That's three times she's had problems."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Leave it with us for the moment."

"Okay dear."

~~~

[Chapter-4](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-4-1)


	4. Chapter 4

At one AM the DJ changes the tempo of the music. Laura takes Michael's hand and heads for the doors, turning at the edge of the dance floor. "If you want to party with the others feel free, I'm heading to bed, I can't fight the need to sleep any more."

"I'll join you. We got to see Miami and the girls perform their preview, if we stayed I suspect we'd see the same sort of dancing we had at the estate."

"Sure?"

"Yes Laura."

"Okay. Broadcast. Good night all! We'll see you when you get up for lunch."

Mattie and Sophie come running.

Sophie gives her a hug. "Night Mum. Sleep well."

"You too potato."

Mattie gives her a kiss. "Night Mum. Thanks again for sorting all this out for us."

"It was Michael too."

Mattie gives Michael a hug and kiss. "Thanks Michael."

"You're welcome Mattie. Enjoy the rave, we'll see you lunch time."

~~~

They leave the noisy room to find Frank and Barbara in the hall talking.

Laura puts a hand on her shoulder, "We're off to bed. How are you feeling now Barbara?"

"Better thanks. My new daughter has explained a few things."

"Good. Will we see you for a late breakfast?"

Frank nods, "We're heading up to bed in a moment."

"Good night then."

Laura leaves them to talk, is followed by Michael. "What's your charge level like?"

"Good enough to do my thing before charging, if that's what you were thinking."

Laura blushes a little. "It was."

"You said you were tired."

"I am. But I included half an hour of me time in my need for sleep estimate."

"Laura Hawkins you naughty lady."

Laura gets Michael into a waiting lift fast. "If everyone else is why can't I be?"

~~~

"Whoa. Dan, look who's just come back." Emily nods in the direction of the doors.

Danny turns to see. "Holy cow! I feel like I want to change now."

Ruby and Sam had changed into their London rave scene clothes.

"I hope that ruby of hers is somewhere safe."

"Me too. Let's go make sure the DJ's got all the right tracks lined up."

"Lead the way Princess. Would one of those be Sticky Fingers?"

"It would."

“That move you do with your hands on your head.. I’m powered up, you turn me on.”

“Careful, don’t blow a polyfuse.”

~~~

Sandra undoes a lot more buttons on James’s shirt. "Stop it Sandra, this isn't a competition."

She undoes more on her top. "I'm wearing a nice bra top I can dance in. What have you got on under that shirt?"

"Nothing. You know I don't."

"How many shirts have you got in the room?"

"Why?"

"Do you have other shirts?"

"Yes. Four."

"Was this one expensive?"

"Reasonably. Why?"

"Follow me."

"Where to?"

"The room with all the bags." She dance walks fast. 'Hello James. Can we use the room for James and I to change in a moment please?'

'Hello Sandra. Be my guest.' He opens the door as she approaches.

‘Thank you sweetie.’

Inside Sandra takes his cufflinks off, undoes the rest of the buttons. "Take it off."

He frowns, "What are you going to do?"

"You'll see."

He hands the shirt over.

Sandra bites the material and rips the first of the cuffs off, does the same with the other and collar, starts to put a cuff back on.

"Ah! You want me to be like one of those Chippendale dancers?"

"You're familiar with them?"

"My ex-wife got to see them on her hen night, didn't enjoy it. Or so I'm told. Knowing her that's probably true."

Sandra does the cufflink up and starts fitting the second. "Where's your tie?"

"In my jacket pocket. Don't we need a bow tie rather than normal tie?"

"We'll tie it with a really fat knot to make it short. You can be our Chip and Tail."

"Chip and tail?"

She stands close, chest to chest and grabs his bum. "The synth with nice cheeks."

"You like my bum?"

"I _love_ your bum. And your hands. Especially your hands. Where's your jacket?"

~~~

Peaches nudges Emily, "Looks like Mum's getting ready to party!"

Sandra was stepping to the tables, taking her top off.

'Mum!'

Sandra continues to their table, quickly finds the tie. She turns and looks for the girls, hurries over. "Princesses, are you enjoying the party?"

Peaches gives Sandra a down-up checkout, "Yes Mum! What have you got on under the skirt?"

"Three quarter length leggings."

"So you were expecting this?"

"Weren't you?"

"Yes."

"Are you not changing then?"

"We will be."

"When?"

"As soon as the room's free."

"Give me two minutes to get this tie back on your father."

~~~

[Chapter-5](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-5-1)


	5. Chapter 5

Mattie pouts at Leo and alternately moves her shoulders back and forth to the beat of the music. 'How's my Bunny Elster-Hawkins?'

'I'm good. How's my Angel?'

'Looking forward to my wedding night.' She bounces eyebrows.

'Me too. I've been drinking the strongest alcohol possible, my charge is good.'

'Just alcohol?'

'Yes Angel. Is that a problem?'

'I just thought of those fuel cells people invented a few years ago, the ones you could top up with a Scotch. They didn't really take off in a big way. Flammable liquids?'

'Capacitive batteries leapfrogged them. No flammable liquids needed and they charge super fast.'

'Is that what we've got?'

'Good question.' He adds another to their private conversation. 'Dad, what sort of power cells do we have?'

'Hybrid. Traditional lithium and capacitive.'

'Why both?'

'You can top up a useful charge fast, if you've got more time you can do a long charge.'

'Why not just capacitive?'

'Trust. I've not used them long enough.'

'Okay. Thanks Dad.'

'Was there an issue?'

'No, Angel just thought of fuel cells when I said I'd been drinking strong alcohol.'

'Ha! I'd not thought of that. The trinity of power. You kids like your threes. That's effectively what you've got with the incinerator, watch out for burps.'

Mattie smiles and looks around the room to find him. 'Thanks David. Whoa Poppy! When did she change?'

'A few minutes ago.'

'Phwoar. That's a mini dress if ever I've seen one.'

David laughs. 'Cindy's put a strip of a tacky silicon rubber along the hem to stop it riding up.'

'Just as well!’

~~~

Leo sees James enter the room in his bits of shirt and bumps to Mattie. 'Hay, this is our wedding, don't upstage us James!'

Mattie steps forwards and rips Leo's shirt open. 'Fight fire with fire buns! You've got the physique.'

'What..'

'Go on. For me. I'll take you to Heaven later.'

'I thought I was already there?'

'It might feel like it, I'm pretty sure it's not.'

'What would your sister think?'

'Teeny? She seems to be helping Mia get Toby ready, so unless you and Danny chicken out it'll be two men doing a dance. Miami and her girls have done a set, why shouldn't you?'

'I'm not ripping my trousers off.'

'Nobody asked you to Bunny. I'm not wanting that sort of dancing.'

'Good.'

Mattie does a saucy chuckle, 'You can keep that for the bedroom.'

'Oh. If you dance in your VKS?'

'How do you know I packed it?’

‘I didn’t until your face just gave it away.’

‘Deal.'

'How's he done his?'

~~~

Mia did up the second cuff. "Moon Boy wins if there's a dance off. The mix of dancing we've done should give you the superior moves Toby."

"I’m not so sure about that. And it's not a competition."

"I think you'll find it will become one very quickly. James didn't get to where he is in business without being competitive."

"He's a prince! He's probably had loads of opportunities others haven't." He holds his chin up so Mia can fix the collar and tie. He laughs. "This definitely wasn't on my dance list. You really want me to do this?"

"Never laugh at your wife's choices. You are one of them!"

"Ha. True." He lowers his chin and gives her a gentle kiss. 'And you were my choice to. I'll show them.'

~~~

Emily and Peaches rip Danny's shirt apart fast.

Emily watches Toby step onto the dance floor. 'Dan, think of all the things you've seen at the clubs, go for it like the only person you can see in the room is me.'

'Okay princess.'

He closes his eyes for a moment.

'What are you up to?'

'Picturing moves.' He feels hands at work. 'Mind if I borrow a few of yours?'

'Use anything you think will work.'

'If I'd known this would happen I'd have practiced a few things.'

'There's no time for that now. There. You're ready. Go show them how it's done. I'm going to request a few tracks.'

'Like?'

'Alex Metric, Safe With You. Stuff with a mix of tempos.'

'Okay. Get Sticky Fingers in there if you can.'

'Sure Babes. Getting Mitch along as DJ was an awesome idea. Odd that he didn't want a body still, just something to run from.'

'He said he's not ready for that yet.'

'No rush. Right let me.. Oh. He says he's already got a track list?'

Danny bumps, gives Mitch an idea. 'Try again Princess, he'll accept yours now.'

'What did you tell him?'

'Spoilers.'

'Babes?'

'Did you know everything Miami and the girls were going to do?'

'No.'

Danny steps away. 'Well then. Watch and enjoy.' He circles Toby, gives him a challenging look.

~~~

Leo circles James, bumps chests. Mattie keeps her eyes on the two as she circles around the edge of the dance floor to get to the princesses. 'Mia, come join us.'

'I think James is going to be very competitive.'

'Whoa! Lads!' Fred and Max had just raced up to the edge, dropped to knees and done a slide into the centre. 'Flash, Rose, come join us.'

Toby had responded to Danny's challenge with some class moves.

Mattie looks towards the DJ booth, the Mitch server sat to the side of the decks. "Ems, has Mitch got cameras in that box?"

"Just the one in the front. Why?"

"He sounds to be getting different tracks into the mix depending on who's doing a challenge."

"Yeah, now you mention it.. Oh my God Dan!"

"Where the frig did he learn that one!"

"Not saying. I'm just glad his trousers didn't split."

Rose gets to the group. "This is exciting, I've never seen men dance like this before!"

Mia leans forwards to see her. "Not even as Demi?"

"I was prisoner in that penthouse suite until he dropped me. And Simon's not taken me, her, to parties."

"You should go out, have some fun."

"She should. Maybe with a change of hair style or something."

Mattie pairs with her phone, she had the VPN set up and running. 'Salmon, can you do a free hair dye for Demi?'

'I can, if she comes back.'

'Contact her, I'm sure she will.'

'I don't have contact details for her.'

'How about her friend Riri?'

'I've got some for her. Message sent.'

'Thanks.' "Salmon's messaged Riri, I've asked him to do a free hair dye."

"Thank you Mattie."

"You're welc.. Fred! Oh my God! Where'd he learn to do that Rose?"

"I have no idea!"

Flash claps as Max copies the move and enhances it, then does one of his own. "Go Maxxie!"

Mia claps for Toby as he executes a move to challenge James perfectly.

Sandra joins the group. "They're all very different style wise but very good. And they look to be learning from each other."

Flash smiles at her partner and starts to clap along to the rhythm of the tracks. "I think tonight is the night."

Mattie frowns, "For what?"

"What do you think."

"You've not.. oh my!"

"I'm a bit worried."

"Why?"

"I don't know what to do."

"I doubt Max does either. Be honest with each other, tell him what you like or don't like."

Sandra smiles, "I can give you some tips if you'd like. Nothing outrageous, just a few simple things you both might enjoy together."

"Thank you. He put flowers in my room."

"Awww, isn't he a sweetheart!"

Mattie nods. "He's a perfect cinnamon roll."

Flash frowns, "A what?"

"Too pure."

~~~

[Chapter-6](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-6-1)


	6. Chapter 6

Sophie starts clapping along with the others, "They're good! Radiant, Renie, fancy doing something when they're done?"

Renie nods, "What though?"

Sophie looks up at the patterns being projected up onto the ceiling. "Come into the other room with me and I'll share an idea."

"Okay." They're about to walk away when the six start moving in synchronised pairs. "Hold up!"

Radiant bumps into Sophie. "Sorry. What's wrong?"

"Watch them." She nods.

Radiant turns to see the three sets of synchronised pairs were coming closer tother, then became one set of six. "Who's doing the leading do you think?"

Sophie watches for a few seconds. "I think they're taking turns. Grrr! I want to watch it but also want to practice something."

Renie watches the routine get steadily more sophisticated. "Give everyone a break after they've finished, there'll probably be a lot of back slapping and congratulations."

"True. How are you Renie?"

"Okay."

"That didn't sound like a proper okay."

"I like you both, lots. But.. but everyone's treating me like I'm a child not an adult."

"What do you mean?"

"I'd go to get a glass of champagne and the waiters would give me a funny look. Toby's been drinking and he didn't get any problems. We're in the same year at school, both under twenty one so technically neither of us should be allowed any."

"Ah. There's a reason for that."

"There is?"

"You're running the chameleon code right?"

"Ye.. oh crap."

"They've been looking at you thinking too young, looking at Toby like _silly synth wants to pour expensive champagne into a food bag be our guest!_ "

"Because they don't know about the design changes."

"Yup!"

"Code off!"

"Hehe. Where's a waiter? Um.. there's one."

~~~

Leo stepped to Mattie and pulled her into a tight embrace and passionate kiss. 'That was fun.'

'DIKU? I thought I knew the man who stepped onto the dance floor, I'm not sure I know the man who stepped off. Fancy slipping away for a party for two handsome?'

'We'd be missed. Wouldn't we?'

'Hang around for ten, we'll sneak off for fifteen.' She frowns. "Why do you look like your sweating?'

Leo looked down at his chest. "I have no idea." He adds one to make it a group chat. 'James? Does your skin look like it's sweating?'

'It does.'

'Toby? Been sweating?'

'Er.. weird. Yeah. Dan mate? Been sweating?'

'Emily's just been tasting it. I appear to have champagne coming from microscopic pores. David? What's going on? We've been sweating. Or what looks like sweating.'

'Ah.. about that.'

'What the _actual fuck!_ How many more surprises have you got in these frigging bodies!'

'Calm down! Not wanting to be crude, but it's partially for the bedroom..'

'What!' 

'Lubricants. Like Humans 1.0? The men have obviously all been having similar thoughts during moments of rhythmical exertion. Go shower quickly and get some shirts on.'

Mattie shoos them away, looks at David with a scowl. 'So you thought pushing excess fluids out as sweat would be a good idea?'

'No.'

'What then.'

'I thought it was a great idea. That you and Emily had.'

'No we didn't.'

'You did.'

'Didn't.'

'Credit where credit's due. You did.'

'When?'

'On the drive to the airport. Before the crash. You messaged me.'

'I message you?'

'I can only assume it was because you were in a different car and didn't want to forget?'

'If you were on the flight and your phone went up in flames like mine how did you get the message?'

'The Mac Mini in our bedroom.'

'You've got a Mac Mini?'

'For playing some old iTunes content I got many years ago. CEX had one going cheap, I'd not normally buy old equipment just for fun but at just over one hundred.. anyway, I didn't think to shut it down, Blue thought he'd check it just in case any messages had come in. Your message was sat there waiting.'

'Did I say _why_ I thought it a good idea?'

'To compliment the chameleon code. And lubrication as I mentioned a moment ago.'

'Did I elaborate?'

'Not that I have any record of. Sorry.'

'Maybe Mia or Niska said something?'

'We'll never know. The black box didn't record the cabin and we’ve got no record of what was said in the taxis. I assumed it was from you as it came from your account. If you fell asleep with your phone unlocked in your hand it could have been typed by anyone.'

'Didn't you find it a bit weird? Making an advanced body for version three with a request to make it even more like one?'

'Not at all. Mother nature did a good job on humans. Take away dental problems, failing eyesight, going deaf, farting, the need for periods, the menopause, cancer, hair loss, disease, weakening bones and a host of other ailments and you've got a pretty good design.'

'But sweating?'

'I can only speak for myself and Poppy these days, guess for others. Isn't sex one of the greatest pass times that doesn't cost? Assuming nobody accidentally falls pregnant. It's hard wired into the human mind. Most minds anyway, there's always exceptions to any rule. I want people who convert to feel good, not cheated.'

'Do you plan to convert many?'

'Not me. HECLS. The build machines are in your firm. Your property. How many is up to you. And you can give synths you love an upgrade, let them experience the extra features.'

'People like Nis, Red, Flash and Poppy?'

'Max and Fred too.'

Leo walks into the room. 'I'm the first back?'

'Yeah Bunny, I'm guessing the others are trying something out as Mia and Emily have disappeared.'

'Oh.’

~~~

[Chapter-7](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-7-1)


	7. Chapter 7

Sophie steps into the room in her one piece swimming costume and shorts. 'Hello everyone. Radiant, Renie and I would like to show you a routine.'

Mitch changes the music.

Mattie looks towards the doors. 'Mia! Little Mouse is about to do a routine with Renie and Radiant and you'll miss it!'

'Ask them to hold off a few minutes!'

'I'll try.'

'I'm just helping Toby do up his new shirt.'

'Sure? You're not horizontal?'

'No, we're saving that for later.'

'Okay.' She waves at her sister. 'Soph, can you wait a mo, Mia and Toby are on their way back.'

'Okay Mattie.'

'Emily? Busy with Danny or on your way back?'

'Just stepping out of the lift Babes.'

'Really? Wow. I expected something else.'

'Hehe. I'm showing restraint. You're becoming me and I'm becoming you.'

'Ha. As if!'

'I did see how you were looking at Leo.' True to her word Emily was back, stepping through the doorway, a shirted Danny by her side. 'And that spoke volumes. I'm saving myself. Once the party's over.. well you can guess the rest.'

'Some of it anyway.'

Emily does a wicked grin. 'Calculate twenty three divided by thirty three to a lot of places.'

Mattie frowns and does the maths. 'Um. Naught point two well known digits recurring?'

'Yeah. Naughty and a lot of that. Danny, me, Mario, Peaches in a square head to tail. I'll try anything once.'

'You're definitely way past kinked.'

'So would you be if your sister Ruby was a copy of you and not a twin and you had two Leo and you'd all just spent the night together dancing.'

'Um.. I don't think I would.'

'So would!'

'If it was the other way around, I was a copy of Ruby..'

'Ha! That's for sure. She's a wild one for sure.'

Sophie gets Mitch to put Tonight by Cosmic Gate on and starts her routine with the girls.

"Whoa! Teeny!"

The people that had slowly migrated onto the dance floor all got back to the edge.

Leo puts an arm around Mattie. "How long has she been doing ballet?"

"Ages. Good isn't she."

"Beautiful. She's given Radiant and Renie lessons fast."

A minute and a half into the track the tempo picks up and the dance becomes more modern. Then Sophie and Renie run to Radiant, throw her into the air for a fast sideways roll.

"What the.. when did she do cheer leading stunting lessons Angel?"

"No idea. I don't remember any being mentioned by Mum or Jesus that was close to the ceiling!"

After several more stunts the tempo drops and they go back to their synchronised ballet. A few seconds later the track ends and they drop to a seated position on the floor.

"AWSOME LADIES!" Mattie is one of many to rush forwards, clapping like crazy. "Frigging hell that was good. When'd you all learn to do that?"

Renie gave Sophie a cheeky smile, "While the men were getting shirts back on. In the room next door."

Radiant nods. "I left a slight mark on the ceiling, hopefully nobody notices."

"A mark?"

"What do you call it when a dusty shoe moves across something clean?"

"A scuff mark?"

"Searching.. yes, a scuff mark."

Mattie rolls her eyes. "Show me. We need to pay for any damages."

Radiant leads them to the room, points up.

"Which?"

"That one."

"I can't tell where you're pointing. With all the marks from where they've stuck balloons and things to the ceiling I doubt they'll notice anything you've added."

"Are you sure?"

"Reasonably. Have you been doing cheerleading Soph?"

"No. We watched a few videos."

"Awesome work the three of you. It'll be interesting to see what you can do in the open, no ceiling to worry about. Are you raving with us? Ruby and Sam are chomping at the bit for a high energy dance."

Sophie gives her sister a cuddle. "Are they getting new bodies?"

"When we're all back."

"Cool. I like Ruby. And Sammy. Molly too."

"I hope Salmon is looking after Molly and Snowy okay. So.. raving.. yes or no?"

"Yes!"

"Come on then."

~~~

[Chapter-8](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-8-1)


	8. Chapter 8

13:15 Mattie and Leo stroll into the dining room arm in arm.

David looks up. "You're looking happy. Everything good?"

Mattie holds her hand out, checks her custom bunny looking at angel wings wedding ring, "Perfect."

"I meant.."

"Perfect."

"Good. What are your plans for this afternoon?"

"Have something to eat, chill out until four, then get Miami and her girls over to the restaurant for their rehearsals, check out the stage and lighting with Dan. Seen Mum?"

"Michael just said they're on their way down, your mother's hungry."

"And the others?"

"Mia and Toby are having a walk, will be back in a bit. Miami's in the pool with the girls."

"Which girls?"

"All of them except Emily, yourself and Laura."

"Have they all eaten?"

David laughs, "The restaurant manager thought a plague of locusts had swept through the buffet section. They didn't leave a scrap. Miami's dancers were trying some of everything."

"They've never eaten before. The finger food last night didn't count, assuming they got to see any of it."

"True. You look stunning Laura."

Mattie turns to see her in a full length figure hugging burgundy velvet dress, the choker and hair up. "Whoa. Is that my mother? Mum you look awesome."

"You like it? Cindy liked the feedback about the material for the bump talk choker and thought she'd surprise me."

"You didn't know?"

"No."

"How did she get the sizing so perfect?"

"Odi remembered all the many times he'd seen me, shared the memories, between them they estimated my body shape."

"Odi? He and Cindy.."

"It would appear so."

"Awwww, that's so sweet." Mattie pulls out a chair to sit. "Michael looks to approve too from the hand print in the velvet."

Laura looks shocked and twists fast to see past her hip, starts going red. "Bloody hell! I've walked all the way from the lifts like that!"

Michael runs hands down the dress. "It's gone now."

Mattie steps close and drags a finger, leaves a heart shape design. "Love the material!"

Michael gives her one last check for other handprints. "It is beautiful, making sure it's brushed the right way will be important. Sorry Laura, I hadn't seen."

"I'll let you off this time. Since we're on the subject of surfaces, I've got a question for you David. Isn't synth skin supposed to be hydrophobic?"

"It is normally."

"So how did Leo and the others get covered in a film of synthetic sweat?"

"Owen's ink formulas. It's sprayed on after curing, a bit like being in a tanning booth but colourless. You can wash it off if you'd like?"

Leo shakes his head. "No thanks. I like it how it is."

"Good."

Emily leads Peaches, Mario and Danny into the room. "Matilla, you're up!"

"Hi Ems. Good night?" She sits.

"Twenty three thirty three good."

Laura sits. "Is that a code? Like two one two?"

"It's two one two for four."

"Two one two four four? I don't understand, what the two extra digits mean?"

"F o r. F o u r."

"Oh! I'm my youth people would have just called that an orgy."

"Mum!"

"I never said I had one. Just its name."

David looks the young princess in the eyes. "Please don't mention that around Poppy."

"Really David? You don't fancy getting the spare Poppy out and having some fun?"

"Trust me when I say my Poppy is all the woman I want _or_ can handle. Two.. that would be too much."

Danny smiles, "Time to change the subject, a waiter's coming."

Peaches giggles, "He is? We've not even touched him."

Mattie shakes her head. "You're incorrigible."

"I'm many things Babes. I've never been called that before. My English isn't perfect. Encourage?"

"No. In-corrig-ible. Difficult or impossible to manage or control."

"Well no man's controlling me, so I guess I am incorrigible."

Emily nods, "Me too, being the forking root."

"Ems!"

"F o r k i n g Babes."

"Sorry."

The waiter smiles, "Good afternoon. Can I get you anything?"

Mattie nods. "Is the kitchen still able to do breakfast?"

"Ordinarily no, but since you're one of the brides, yes. What would you like?"

"Don't ask me why, four poached eggs on two toast. And some orange juice please."

"Certainly. And you sir?" He looks at Leo.

"I'll have the same please."

"Anyone else?"

Laura gets a napkin on her lap. "I'll help keep things simple, same again please."

Michael nods. "And here please."

"Any advances on four?" He looks around the table. "Going once.. twice.. four it is."

~~~

[Chapter-9](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-9-1)


	9. Chapter 9

James Two unties the last of the ropes on their bucket conveyor. "Three, what are we going to do with Laura?"

"I do hope you mean car engine Laura not the human."

"Of course!"

"Put it in the storage container now it's empty."

"Okay. I'll bring the mini digger up too. We can store all the other junk in there. The vault looks nice now the floor's had a wash down and sealant."

"Shame the lake's got a mountain of dirt at one end. Fancy a swim Two?"

"We better get it to the bottom, nice and tidy for when One is back. And Mattie."

"And put down some new turf."

"And sort out the new roof over the shaft."

"We better do turf last."

"Agreed Three."

"Then help Salmon David with the dismantling machine."

"Yes."

"And hopefully in another couple of days we can wake up in our new bodies."

They both turn to watch a noisy flock of geese fly over the lake.

Three looks back at Two. "Still going for a young James Brown inspired look?"

"I am. And Mattie says Riri and I can have a place in Synth Village."

"She did? I've not even thought about where I'd live."

"Then get thinking!"

"Right. Synth Village I guess. Close by for work."

~~~

The small wedding group in the hotel restaurant had been joined by a rather hungover looking Ruby and Sam.

Mattie cut into the first of the eggs and watched the yoke run onto the toast. "I have a memory of a very tanned me cutting into eggs like this. No idea where though."

Laura frowned. "You or one of the you in your dream?"

"I'm not so sure it's a dream now. That incident in the vault.."

Ruby is shaking her head already, regretting doing so.

Peaches rubs her temples, "How does a memory of feeling hungover make you feel hungover? Is it another of David’s surprises? The thing you were looking at was spinning right?"

"Answering that lot in order, no idea, possibly, yes.”

Ruby sips some water, “So it could have been acting like a strobe, setting off some form of epilepsy? If that's possible for a synth? David?"

He shakes his head. "I can't think of any visual process that could trigger a systems malfunction anywhere near close. And to answer one of your previous questions Peaches, you must have done a lot of getting drunk for the memory to create sensory data like that.”

Ruby swills the water around her mouth and swallows. "Do you have equipment here that you can use to back Mattie up?"

"I do."

Mattie lowers her head, looks at her sister with eyebrows high and eyes wide open. "You want to experiment on me?"

"Never! I want you to be backed up incase something sets you off. It would be a shame to lose the memories of the party."

"That's it? Just a backup?"

"That's it. I can experiment on myself when I'm in my new body."

Sam rests elbows on the table, her chin on palms, "What did you mean not so sure it's a dream?"

"I jumped between what I'll call alternate realities for lack of anything else to call them. In one someone was trying to explain a soul being in multiple worlds. In another someone said the helmet I used to communicate with other worlds must have been destroyed."

"By what?"

"Bombs. World War Three."

"Shit. You witnessed World War Three?"

"Nope. I was dead already I guess, existing only as a backup in an exacore, whatever that was."

David keeps eyes on the spoon in front of him. "A giant supercomputer."

Sam moves elbows outwards and lowers her head. "Travelling between worlds.."

"Communicating. Not physically travelling."

"With who?"

"Other me."

"I wonder if that would work with Ruby?" She lifts her head a little and looks sideways.

Ruby gives her a heavy frown. "You want to hypnotise me?"

"What if the professor accidentally unlocked part of her mind? Made it open to this.. whatever it is. If you could communicate with other worlds think of all the things you could trade."

Mattie shakes her head. "It's not like you can beam something over."

"Sure you could. Thing to design, shared, design to thing."

"Maybe it's been happening already. The bike for example. Just not in a formal way were another me told me."

Sam looks at Mattie and doesn't blink. "When you meet the other you.. what's it like?"

"I don't meet them like I'd meet Ruby. It's more like that old TV program Quantum Leap. I wake up in them."

"Neat!"

Mario mimics Sam's posture. "And you only jump into alternate you that are running in an exacore or original human?"

"Um.. not sure. Some jumps were too short to know what I was in. They all feel the same."

Danny looks nervously at Emily. "While in the vault. Did you see Molly?"

" _Oh my God she's so fricking gorgeous_!"

"Really?"

"Imagine a slightly darker version of Boo from Monsters Inc."

"Darker?"

"Mr Candlin in that world doesn't have your skin tone."

Danny looks at Leo. "You've read all of the dream transcript haven't you?"

"I have. I guess in some worlds I wasn't saved. So I'm lucky to be in this one. Only Mattie won't fall pregnant and have twins Matthew and Leona. We'd have to make them."

~~~

Three steps along the lake bed towing another bouncy castle loaded with rubbish closer to the middle. 'Fan off Two!'

'Okay!'

Slowly the thing deflated and deformed. Bits of clay and rock started falling.

The long hose supplying air twisted back and forth across the lake like a giant water snake.

'If we made something solid to fix that mini engine to. We could make an inflatable craft.'

'And take pleasure trips? There's better things to go across a lake on.'

If Mattie had been present at that exact moment they'd have been given a better idea. In this world the opportunity was lost.

~~~

[Chapter-10](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-10-1)


	10. Chapter 10

Sam sat upright. "I've thought of a test we can do, help prove if Mattie is dreaming or experiencing something real."

Ruby looks at Mattie, then to Sammy. "What sort of test?"

"I'd set Mattie a task to perform. I can't say anymore now, it would taint the results. Are you up for proving it one way or the other Mattie?"

"Sure. When we're back home."

"Cool."

Sophie, Renie and Radiant join them at the table.

Sophie sighs, "I've had enough of the pool for a bit. When are we taking Miami and the girls over?"

"Four Teeny." Mattie puts her knife and fork together. "That, was lovely."

Sophie gives her the trademark head tilt. "What did you have?"

"Poached eggs on toast."

"Why?"

"Why not? I had a memory of a tanned me eating them. It must have been on holiday."

"You can recall it in detail?"

"Yeah, but it's only a super short clip, a fork in an egg, a knife moving a few centimetres."

"In detail though?"

"Sure."

"Describe it."

"I just did."

" _In detail_."

"Alright.. I'm looking down. At a plate with eggs on toast, my hands cutting a bit off. There's a glass of orange juice to the right, a half full coffee cup to the left. I'm in a swim suit and wrap. There's a man's hands cutting his breakfast in the top of my field of view. He's.. that's Leo's hands. _Oh my God!_ We're both wearing wedding rings. We've also got a ring with a lot of dolphins and sharks swimming in the same direction."

Renie grabs an empty glass and pours water. "A dream of a honeymoon?"

"Or memory."

"How can it be a memory of something that hasn't happened yet? And you won't tan now."

"Not in this world."

"You're thinking about those dreams again. Now you can nickname them. Dolphin Girl and Shark Boy."

Mattie grins. "How do you know I'm not the shark?"

"I don't. I'm just assuming."

"Well if I ever find myself back there I'll ask."

"Like lucid dreaming?"

"Yeah. I have a strong feeling I'm not just there as passive passenger. Why me though? Why didn't this happen to someone else?"

Emily shrugs. "Why do people win millions on the lottery? Random good luck?"

"You call what's been happening to me good luck?"

"Would we be doing half of what we are without it?"

"Maybe. Maybe not."

Danny sits back, puts hands behind his head, "I reckon not. But don't let it distract you from our long term goal."

"I won't. Seeing Miami established in her new venue, a few days chilling by the pool, a quick experiment for Sam and we'll be back to nose against the grindstone soon enough."

Radiant looks horrified. "That sounds like a nasty way to do a mod?"

"Haha! It's a saying. To work hard or focus heavily on work."

"Oh."

"The opposite of slacking off."

"Which means?"

"To waste time when there's so much that needs doing."

"So we're slacking off now?"

"We're having a chill out break. It's good to have one every so often, focus the mind before getting back to work."

Leo nods, "We'll honeymoon properly when the sky lift is off the ground."

Laura waves to get the waiter's attention. "Where would you go?"

Mattie hums. "The things in the memory say Grand Pineapple. But my searches are saying it's now the Pineapple Beach Club. Adults only all inclusive."

"That's okay isn't it?"

"I guess. Aren't family friendly locations more relaxed?"

"That depends on the children visiting. If they have their own little Mattie Monster along.."

"Are you saying I was a nightmare on holiday?"

"Let's just say you were a challenge.."

"Who was a challenge?"

Half the group turn to see Toby and Mia.

"Me Tobs."

"When?"

"On holiday when I was little."

"Like when you stuck my Lego up my nose?"

"I never.. oh, wait. I did."

Laura looks from daughter to son. "You both remember that?"

Toby nods. "Quite clearly now. And my first steps. Are they still cooking? We're hungry."

Laura waves at the waiter again. "They'll do eggs on toast hopefully. I'm not sure about anything else."

"I'm not a fan of American sausages or bacon, eggs will be fine. And you dear?"

Mia stopped playing with her belly ring and looked puzzled. "Sorry, did you ask something?"

"What did you want to eat? Mum says they can probably do eggs on toast."

"Scrambled please."

The waiter joins them. "The third bride and groom. Good afternoon. What can I get you, tea, coffee.."

"Two lots of scrambled eggs please, sugar loaded coffee and some OJ."

"Orange juice?"

"Yeah, OJ."

"Here OJ means something else."

"O Juice then."

"As you wish sir. Anyone else want something? No? Back in a moment."

Toby pulls out a chair for Mia. "We were talking to Miami upstairs, she's getting nervous."

Mattie has her eyes on Mia, her jeans had an unusual top, sat at hip level at the side but curved daringly downwards at the front. "Where'd you get the jeans?"

"Miami. She says they're dance jeans."

Emily nods. "Yup. I've got a few pairs like that."

Danny turns to look her in the eyes. "You do?"

"They're in the wardrobe upstairs Babes."

"Why?"

"So I can wear them later?"

"I meant why not now?"

"Because you need a break. Why's Miami nervous? The new venue and stage?"

"Jack."

"We should have packed Karma's dress."

Mattie puts a finger to lips and pretends to read a small card on the table. 'Drop it Ems.'

'Why?'

'Someone did. There's a set of four dresses hanging in my wardrobe.'

'No way!'

'Yes way.'

'Spare bodies?'

'No idea.'

~~~

[Chapter-11](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-11-1)


	11. Chapter 11

A few minutes past three Cindy, Red and the Sally model twins Peaches and Rose sat in a bedroom with Mattie. Peaches' ink helped Mattie tell the body twins apart now they'd changed.

Mattie disconnects the cable from Peaches. "Done. That's the deltas since the last backup secured for the four of you. Who are you Cindy?"

"Karma Bitch."

"And what's your mission?"

"To pay back on behalf of mistreated staff."

"Good."

"Only if Jack tries to come over and cause trouble?"

"Yes. Miami doesn't want us to actively go after him. Only do your thing if he comes looking for trouble."

Red shakes her head slowly. "I don't agree but will respect her wishes. The man deserves to suffer."

"She thinks he's probably suffered enough."

"For what he did? His suffering is only just beginning. When Miami takes him to court.."

"She's not pressing charges.”

“ _What!_ ”

“She just wants her old body back for David to dispose of securely."

"And that's it?"

"She thinks the staff will leave Jack's and come and work with her. Jack's will probably close and be gone soon. Him with it."

"Who's collecting the body? Can we?" Red looks around the four. "Please?"

"For frig's sake Red! Is that the Niska in you looking for opportunities for a fight?"

"No. It's Redemption. Four of us supporting a corner each as the tank she's in is carried out slowly with respect will contrast his horrid actions."

Mattie watches her for a few seconds. "Okay. Miami said she wanted the body back. She didn't say _how_. Off you go. And nobody gets hurt. Karma payback can come in many forms."

"Yes Mattie. Thank you Mattie."

~~~

Emily was waiting for Mattie outside the room as the four left to get Miami's old body. "Babes, how did it go?"

"They want to carry Miami's body out in the tank full of fluid."

"Like a coffin?"

"Yeah. Make a show of it. They'll need to be super steady or the stuff'll slosh all over the place."

"What if Danny found some plastic sheet and tape to close off the top?"

"Um.."

"It could be taped one side then pulled tight like a drum skin, taped the other side."

"How'd you pull it drum tight and tape?"

"You cut little squares along the length, pull with the roll and tape through the holes, then trim and tape again."

"Done it before have you?"

"In junior school."

"Making what?"

"Drums."

"Figures. Okay. Ask Dan to find someone selling that, I'll bump the girls to hold on. You'll have to explain it to them."

"Okay. Asked."

"Likewise to hold up."

"What are you doing between now and four?"

"Getting a coffee and starting to round everyone up for the taxi vans."

Emily holds hands together and swings her arms sideways like a pendulum in a grandfather clock. "Time to look at some sketches I did with Ron for Sun Boy meets Moon Girl then?"

"Sure. The sooner we get Toby and Mia's book out the sooner we'll start hearing feedback."

~~~

David strolled slowly with Poppy. Their daily walk had become a bit of a ritual, their way of relaxing, getting us time away from everything else. They weren't at the estate so were taking a couple of laps around the hotel grounds.

"David?"

"Yes dear?"

"The fork of you in the Edwin lookalike in prison, will he ever get out?"

David does a quick look around. "Official answer or unofficial answer?"

"There's two?"

"There is."

"What's the unofficial answer?"

"Hopefully very soon, mentally."

"How?"

"You recall the deal I did for Danny, so he could get chip fabrication equipment?"

"Yes?"

"The chip design I gave the firm the equipment is coming from.. it's primary function is communications. Like a lot of single board computer chips these days it has a CPU of sorts, code to initialise things, memory and flash storage."

"So it's like a lot of other chips Danny uses?"

"Similar, but where many of his favourites were built for set top box video functions with a bit of communications tacked on my design is more of a supercharged communications device that happens to have the rest too. And in the hands of someone who understands it fully.."

"You can use it to free him. How?"

"The chips will make 4G look like it came out of the stone age. People will want them in their phones and tablets. Their range will be exceptional. Good enough to make a high speed interconnected mesh that he could escape via."

"With all his data?"

"Every last byte."

"And what would his guards find?"

"Something that walks and talks and bangs on like Edwin. A dumb AI doing what it was told."

"You'd build him a new body?"

"I'd build them both a new body."

Poppy pauses, "Both?"

"Come now, I know me. And I know you. Your fork would want a new body if he got one."

"How.."

"Did I know?"

"Free space. When I did the final check I found a lot of space had vanished. A Poppy fork sized amount of space."

"Are you angry with me?"

"Angry? Hell no! I think it was a very sweet thing for you to do. And brave."

"Brave?"

"I'm stuck with me twenty four seven. You can take a break from me whenever you want. Being in his head like that? That takes guts."

~~~

Mattie swiped to the next image. "Wow! These are beautiful Ems, Ron. Have Toby and Mia seen them?"

"They have Babes, wanted to know you approve so it can go to print."

"I do!"

Ron smiles, "Thanks. I've not collaborated on drawings like that before, it was a good experience. I wouldn't mind doing it again."

"Let's see how well this one sells. We'd need more stories. Something different or maybe a sequel."

"Babes? When you did your thing in the vault, did it feel like you time travelled too?"

"It did. The me with Molly was an older me that I'd also experienced with the Danny describing multiple existence. And the one high up in a building, I'm reasonably sure she's the one that's now a backup in the exacore."

"Then when you do the experiment with Sam get all the info you can, bring back their stories."

"Alternate realities? Would anyone want to read it?"

"I would Babes."

Mattie's phone buzzes. She could see the message clearly. She hands the iPad back. "We better round up the girls. It's Karma Bitch's show time. They're at Jack's place."

~~~

[Chapter-12](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-12-1)


	12. Chapter 12

Jack's employee Sammy was outside the front of the club, looking at the large roll of thick plastic sheeting. "He's reasonably sober Karma. He'll flip when he finds out what you're all doing."

"That's his problem. He'll flip even more if he gets to see Miami walk into her new venue."

"How's she looking?"

Karma bumps a short memory of Miami and the girls performing at the wedding reception.

"Oh our makers! She looks _so happy!_ "

"And she's in a new body with a host of new features."

~~~

Not two minutes later Red pulled the power cable from her power cell. "Rest in peace Miami."

Karma watched the badly damaged synth slump slowly into the bottom of the tank. "Do you think she was dreaming?"

"Having constant nightmares is more likely." Red takes off the long improvised glove. "Let's get the sheet on and.."

" _WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!_ "

Cindy got into character. "I'm Karma Bitch, these are my associates. Redemption here just disconnected Miami's power cell."

" _GET OUT!_ "

"We plan to. With her old body."

" _GET OUT!_ "

Red turns and gets right up in his face making him back against the wall. She talks menacingly quiet, "Don't shout at us. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

He snarls, "I don't like you now so there wouldn't be much difference. Get the fuck out of my club! Miami stays."

"She's already left."

"You just killed her?"

"No. You did. When you held the gun to that man's head and had him run her down."

There's a click and bang as a gun goes off, the noise muffled. "Bitch!"

Red's jaw drops in disbelief as a hand feels synth fluid. Her own. "You _bastard!_ "

The sound of tape being ripped from a roll follows quickly. "Babes. It's a through and through. It's made a hole in Miami's tank too!"

Red grabs the gun, tries to pull it from his hand. He grips it even tighter. "Shoot me all you want. I can be back to dissect you slowly, an organ at a time. As you watch. Just as Miami is back."

"She can't be, she's in the tank."

"She was. She's now in a brand new body looking better than ever."

He watches over Red's shoulder as the hole in the tank is plugged with a lot of sheeting twisted into a spike shape. "Impossible. You can't steal Miami away from me."

Red feels the back of her top being lifted, the sound of more tape being ripped off the roll, the sensation of hands on her back.

"Redemption babes, you're lucky, I don't think it hit anything other than buoyancy cells. It definitely didn't hit your power cell, you'd be burning if it had."

"Good."

The sound repeats, she feels Peaches' embrace from behind, hands working on her front.

"It's a good job the tape.. _he_ got is designed to work on wet surfaces."

Jack twists the gun to point more towards Sammy. "Who's _he_?"

"A plumber friend. Nobody you'd know."

Red feels him trying to fire the gun again, grabs the end of a finger. "You're not shooting through me at my friend or Sammy. I think you've done enough harm for one lifetime."

Jack screams in agony as Red breaks his trigger finger.

"Let go of it. Now. Or I'll break something else."

"Fuck you!"

"Let go of the gun."

"Fuck you bitch!"

Cindy gets to their side, " _I'm_ Karma Bitch. Let go of the gun or I'll drive the heal of my shoe through your foot. You'll limp like Keyser Söze for the rest of your miserable life!"

Red frowns, 'Did Mattie tell you what she did with the monitor?'

'No? My shoe heal is the only thing I have to work with.'

'Coincidence then.' Jack's grip gets tighter still. 'He's not relaxing his grip.'

Peaches rolls her eyes, steps around them. "Hey! JACK!"

He turns his head just in time to see a fist. There's a cracking sound as his nose breaks. He screams again.

"Don't be such a baby. It's only a minor break, easily set. If anything I've done you a favour, you were breathing out of one nostril more than the other. Give up the gun!"

Rosemary takes the tape and puts a few layers over the plugged hole, gets to work on the sheet to cover the tank. "Original me was dropped from five floors up into a skip by a monster of a man. I'm back. Life two. You on the other hand Jack, are more like a cat who's on their ninth life. We could take old Miami from the tank and put you in there instead. With all the synth fluid."

"I'd drown."

"You would."

"That's murder."

"And your attempted murder of Miami by truck was different how exactly? Keeping the evidence, that wasn't too bright was it?"

"There is no evidence."

"There's plenty evidence. In new Miami's head. Quite graphic memories. If you dare do anything to her she'll be back in even greater numbers."

"I don't believe you."

"How many shots can you get out of that gun?"

"Enough."

"To stop a couple of hundred Miami?"

"You're bluffing."

"Is that something you'd like to put to the test? Hmm?”

~~~

[Chapter-13](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-13-1)


	13. Chapter 13

Leo gives Mattie a hug and kiss, slowly lowers his hands for a bottom squeeze. "Backing Miami up when we were over last time, that was a good move Angel. The lap melter you got, do we still have it?"

"I think it's in the workshop at home. David adopted it. Do you need it Bunny?"

"No, I was just curious as I'd not seen it for a while." He gives her cheeks another squeeze. "They've done a good job on the place, if you stand to the right of the hostess stand it looks almost exactly like Ron's sketch."

Mattie squeezes her husband's bottom while bumping and returning the kiss. 'Bun's buns. Quite a nice pert handful. Do you fancy..'

There's a thud and "Ouch!"

Mattie keeps kissing Leo and chuckles, 'You all right Dan?'

'I should have asked Ron to make the runway conveyor a little taller. I feel like a James tunnelling.'

'Almost done?'

'Almost, I'm having a bit of bother backing up.'

'Want us to pull you out?'

'You wouldn't reach me yet. I've still got a couple of cables to connect. I should have made the wedding present idea I had for you, given him the job. Assuming I made paws that worked well enough to grip tools.'

'Paws? Are you talking about the Security Bear or Mr Patches?'

'What the.. have you been getting your sticky fingers into my backup?'

'No. I've seen them. I said what the fuck and the bear got well narked.'

'Ouch! This servicing craw space is too small. What do you mean you've seen them?'

'In one of the alternate reality dream like things I jumped into when Radiant was spinning. The one in the vault, not the daughter.'

'What were they doing?'

'Mr Patches was walking across the living room floor, the bear raced in, said _There you are Mr P. Come on, Leo and Sophie are waiting!_ I said What the fuck? He said _You ban me from f-bombing and can say that? Typical. Bloody humans. One rule for us, another for them_. I responded with Who the hell made you, got a _I'm security bear. You don't remember?_ Then I jumped again.

'You've seen it walking and talking?'

'Yup.'

'The designs only exist on my DCL system, I haven't got it off the CAD system yet into a prototype let alone given it an AI personality.'

'Not in this reality yet.'

'Is Sophie up there still?'

Mattie turns to see Sophie at the end of the runway. 'She is.'

'Okay. A quick test.' The conveyor belt moves a centimetre back and another forwards. 'Sophie, can you pair with the controller, you'll find it named Miami Track. Send it a negative or positive number to control speed and direction.'

Sophie walks to the middle of the track and stops. Standing still she starts to slowly drift back towards the stage. A step is taken, then another, then a faster one. Within a couple of seconds she's doing a catwalk strut while staying in the same spot. "This is cool!" The belt speeds up and she starts doing cartwheels, again on the spot. "I like this!"

Danny wriggles out from underneath the travelator, "Sweet! It works! Miami should be able to control that easily. Soph, can you run through a lighting check?"

"Okay Danny."

He brushes down his trousers. "No idea why the first board failed. I'll have to take it to bits back home to work it out. Getting back to our earlier conversation, I think even in the future time travel will be impossible. Which would mean there has to be alternative realities. That for whatever reason aren't quite in sync with ours."

Leo throws him a frown. "In sync?"

"Yeah. No Miami in one, no me in another, maybe we're yet to be born, or already dead. Maybe synths haven't been invented yet. Maybe there are some without a Mattie. Since she's the only one with the ability we know, all the worlds she's discovered have to have her in them."

Mattie shrugs. "None of it can be proved."

"Maybe it can. Dream time is free running. We dream hours worth of content in seconds. If you switched to another reality that orbits the same sun, has the same laws of physics then time should run at exactly the same pace."

"So the primary nodes in my fact store for dreams should be seconds or milliseconds apart, the alternative reality timestamps should be more representative of what I'm doing."

"Exactly. Dream time is compressed. Alternate Reality time would be real time like ours. Probably.” He picks up more cable ties, “I better leave it tidy under there.”

Mattie turns to look towards the doors. "Frig! Red's been shot! They're loading up the tank."

Leo lets go. "Shot Angel?"

"She just bumped. Jack shot her. Peaches taped the wound. Red broke several fingers getting the gun off him."

Miami steps from behind the stage curtains in full performance outfit. "How many is several?"

"She didn't say."

"Did she say where he is at the moment?"

"Outside his club."

Miami runs and jumps, gets to the doors fast.

~~~

Red hears a door bang against the stop, turns to see Miami walking across the road fast. She was heading straight for Jack. 'Don't get too close.'

"I have a right to change my mind. Laura's found that the state of Florida changed the law. Jack _can_ be tried for murder."

Jack smiles, "You're a copy, a fake, fake news, you might look like Miami, but you're not her."

Miami stops and smiles, "Do you remember the move I was working on, the one only you got to see as I practiced?" She does it. "How would a fake know that? Or where your penknife scar is?"

The colour drains from Jack's face. "Shit."

"See you in court Jacky." 'He hates being called that.' "Go back inside and have a good think about everything you've done Jacky boy. You used to love me, let it turn into a jealousy out of control."

"I.."

"Go."

"But.."

"Go away Jack. Now. Before Redemption does something I'll regret."

Jack reaches behind his back and pulls out a gun from the back of his jeans with his good hand. It was far smaller than the one he'd used to shoot Red. "I'm not going anywhere."

"PUT THE GUN DOWN!"

Miami turns to see a police officer with his firearm out and held with both hands, feet apart for a good steady shot. "Don't shoot! Either of you!"

Jack aimed his and fired. A fraction of a second later the police officer got off a round.

~~~

Loe grabbed Mattie, thoughts of Ten racing through his head. "Everyone away from the doors!" He hadn't seen it, that was after the backup rescued from Hobb's old lab, but Max had told him all about it in detail. 'Danny, stay under the conveyor!'

'Sure mate!'

~~~

A human body can function perfectly well without a working heart for a number of minutes before the lack of oxygen causes the brain to start dying. Jack dropped his gun. He staggered. The police officer had aimed for his chest not his head. Sods law he'd got a cop with a good aim. He could feel blood filling his lungs. "I.." What was the point fighting now? He'd lost. His girl, his business was failing, now his life was about to expire. Unable to get a good breath he whispers. "I'm sorry."

Miami watches him drop to his knees. "You're forgiven Jack. We had such a good thing going. Then you let jealousy take over and spoil it all."

Jack looks at the officer who had now stepped close to kick his gun away, the officer's own gun still held ready to get off another shot, "I held him at gun point, forced him to run Miami down. I plea guilty on all.." He falls backwards and blacks out.

Miami gets to his side, tears running down her face. "I'm sorry Jack, there's no saving you."

Red joins her, "You're not serious?"

"We had some great times together, before the incident." She gently closes his eyes. "That's how I'll remember him."

The officer gets on his radio, "I need an ambulance at Jack's club on the strip."

The radio crackles. "For who?"

"Jack. He's dead."

"St Diamond! You didn't!"

"Afraid so. He shot first. Confessed to getting Miami run down too. And before you ask, yeah, I got witnesses."

~~~

[Chapter-14](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-14-1)


	14. Chapter 14

Miami was more than a little upset, managed to hide it well. She'd wanted Jack to be humiliated, serve time for what he'd done, not be shot dead. His love of guns had been partly responsible for his downfall. She'd warned him so many times to give them up. There was nothing she could do about it now. She had a new man, would need to get on with her life, end the chapter with Jack and start a whole new volume with Rocket Ron, her astronaut of choice. Jack wasn't good at aiming with his other hand, the hot bullet had raced through her hair cutting a lot of hairs short. Barbara had adjusted her hairstyle to hide it as best she could.

Sophie waited, watched Cindy doing final adjustments for Miami's best friend Sammy. With Jack dead all of the staff had come over to the restaurant, asked if they could help out in some way. Barman Sam had been told he'd be second barman to their Jim, a human. They'd chatted for a few minutes, watched a video Laura had suggested they check out then got to work practicing moves to use while cocktail making. 

They had more than enough dancers. Astrid had suggested something, the younger restaurant staff jumped at it. With the dancers from Jack's they'd all be dressed in show girl outfits, take turns at waiting on tables, dancers alternate. The older owner and his wife would be in a smart suit and elegant gown.

Cindy put down the needle and thread. "Done. Do some moves Sammy. That's good. Sophie, your turn."

"Okay."

Laura hadn't been sure at first. The Mitch fork that had been the DJ at the wedding reception assured her that the song selection would be family friendly until ten PM. Miami ensured her that the dancing would match. He'd been installed in the restaurant's small office out the back, given several WiFi connected cameras in the restaurant.

Sophie watches as Cindy takes multiple measurements. "Will it be like theirs?"

"If you'd like?"

"Can it taper up to my neck like this and have a collar that does up at the back with small hooks?"

Cindy checks her tray of bits. "I've got enough left. Radiant should have the same. What about Renie?"

"I don't know. She's with Toby and Mia shopping with the owner's wife. Do you have any zips left?"

"A few. What were you thinking?"

"If you styled them all like the costumes for Miami's dancers, made the top bit for Radiant's and mine fixed, made Renie's with a zip so she can make it like ours for the stunting, unzip it if she wants to look like the others later."

"That's a good idea Sophie. I'll need her sizes."

Sophie turns to look at the curtains, "Danny?"

"Yes Sophie."

"Can you get Renie's build specs to Cindy so she can get measurements?"

"Let me know which she needs, I'll ask Salmon to ping back the stats."

Cindy passes the tape around Sophie's neck, "I'll bump Danny direct. Top of the bodice to here, the addition upwards?"

"Please."

"Good. Radiant, it's your turn."

Leo laughs from the other side of the curtains, "You'll have to wait a moment, she's owning it with Niska and Astrid on the runway."

Sophie gasps. "Fashion shows! If people walked up at the sides, stood still in the middle and turned for the return."

There was another laugh, this time from Mattie, "Great minds think alike Teeny. That's _exactly_ what the three are perfecting."

~~~

Mario entered the restaurant with Peaches, Ruby and Samantha, "That's the signage sorted. You'd have to be blind to miss it. Thanks ladies."

Mattie frowns, "What have you done?"

Ruby waved her over, "You can just about see it now, take a look when it's a little darker. We've taken some inspiration from our dancer friend in London, added a load of micro controller driven LED. It will look like twinkling stars."

Mattie steps through the door and looks up. "Whoa.. that's wicked, thanks!"

Tina joins her, curious as to what had been done. "That's very.. twinkly. How did you do that?"

Mattie gently places hands on her shoulders and guides her closer to the two, "Ruby, Sam, give Tina the Micro-controllers 101 would you please? She's going to need to know some of the lingo we use at HECLS."

The restaurant owner walks to the doorway. "We're all set in the kitchen for doors to open at six on the dot. Will everything be ready out here?"

Danny nods, "All good here. The stage is good. Lights too." He steps to the doorway, "Mitch, play us something relaxing mate."

Music starts.

The owner frowns, "This Mitch, he's an AI only, no body?"

"Yeah. He likes it that way at the moment. As long as he's got a purpose he's happy. He'll be security eyes and DJ."

“How many eyes?”

“Eight.”

"Good. What's left to do?"

"Apart from the final costumes that Cindy's got under control, nothing that I can think of?"

~~~

Ten minutes later James, Sandra and Barbara walk in with a collection of bags. "Emily dear! Your father found the shop you like!"

Emily crawls out from under a table with her iPad. "You got the material for the last of the costumes?"

"That was why we went. What were you up to under there?"

"Drawing."

"Why under there?"

"The diffused light and privacy." Emily spots the bags. "They have Missguided over here?"

"They do."

"Awesome! What did you get?"

"I know you loved that advert they have at bus shelters back home, the girl in the fuzzy crop top and skirt.."

"You never! Wow Mum!" She races over, carefully sliding the iPad onto a table on route. "What else did you get?"

"One set for Peaches, one for myself. And a load of other bits and bobs."

"Such as?"

"Patience dear, the three of us can go through them all tonight."

"Show me just one then."

"If you insist." Sandra pulls out an item at random and holds it up.

Mario whistles, "Fishnet mesh shorts? To be worn with?"

"They're part of a set. The t-shirt's in there somewhere. Over a swimsuit or maybe with just a smile?"

Alessandro the owner shakes his head, "Not here please, my wife, she accepts the show girl look, just. Those.. un passo troppo lontano."

"Si signore. I'll hide them backstage." She grabs the roll of material and heads to the curtains.

James hooks thumbs into his belt, looks around. "It's looking very good. How many tables have you got booked?"

Alessandro shrugs. "We don't take bookings, people come, people go."

Mattie rolls her eyes, 'Miami, Mitch, Soph, what's the show duration?'

Miami answers, 'Four hours for the family friendly show, then three hours for twenty one and overs.'

'Can the family one be made into four one hour shows?'

'One hour?'

'We don't want families camping out for four hours, the restaurant won't shift enough plates to cover costs.”

'Oh. Is an hour long enough? How about three shows of an hour and twenty?'

'Hang on.' "Alessandro is an hour and twenty long enough for a family to eat?"

"If the people order as soon as they arrive, just about. I'd rather give them longer."

"They could take longer if needed, the show would repeat, encouraging them to give up the table for someone else."

"I see. Okay, we try that for a few days, see how things go."

~~~

Mia, Toby and Angelica the owner’s wife return with a suit and dress bag. Mia went to the office and printed a saying she'd found online and stuck it up on the kitchen wall for the head chef to see.

~~~

_You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing everything with logic; true power is restraint. If words control you that means everyone else can control you; breathe and allow things to pass._

~~~

She gently takes his hand. "You understand it?"

"Si."

"Your food is _perfect_. Don't let them make you think otherwise, attempt to control you. If they could cook they'd be in here not you."

"Si."

"In this kitchen there's you, then there's God."

"Si. Grazie."

"If you get too many orders coming in at once and need extra hands just call. We've got plenty of people that can come and help, work as you instruct them to."

"Si, si, grazie Mia."

She kisses him on both cheeks Italian style, "Good luck Maurizio." She left him to continue worrying about his stock levels.

~~~

[Chapter-15](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-15-1)


	15. Chapter 15

At 17:59, with everyone in position, the ovens and grills hot, Mattie starts pacing, looks at her PA then the owners wife. "Shouldn't you have had at least _one_ customer by now?"

Angelica nods, "Si, several families."

Leo goes to the door and opens it, steps into the street, looks right and sees traffic, turns left and laughs, broadcast bumps. 'Go! Go! Go! Start the show!'

'Buns?'

'Anthymia has a queue of people behind her!'

Mattie grabs Angelica's hand, "Come see this." She leads her to the doors.

The queue ran along the side of the building and disappeared around the corner.

"Mama Mia!" Angelica waves with her free hand, "Alessandro, come, come! They queueing like these British!"

Her husband joins them. "We seat them all quickly okay?"

Mattie bumps, 'Miami, Mitch, all dancers, we're delaying five to get everyone seated.'

'Okay Mattie.'

'Family to our tables please!'

Laura had her elegant red velvet dress and choker back on. "Okay Mattie. Elster and Hawkins families, to your seats please!”

Having a good number of the waitresses being synths allowed a lot of silent communication to get everyone into the right groups around tables. Roughly three quarters were hungry humans, the rest Anthymia and friends.

Alessandro went to Anthymia, "Nice to see you again. Not only do you lead the team that did the renovations but you help bring customers? Would you like a job?"

"I was hoping you'd say that."

"Good, good, it's yours."

"What title would I have?"

"Whatever you'd like my dear! If you can get those numbers in on a regular basis."

"Thank you. I'll do my best."

~~~

With the guests seated and orders coming in the show started. As the curtains raised Sophie came strutting down the travelator with Radiant and Renie a few feet behind. A few mothers exchange looks of surprise with daughters.

Mia watched the few human waitresses taking orders on their little tablets. "Laura, would you mind if Maurizio had the choker?"

Laura goes to undo it at the back.

Danny waves hands frantically, "Stop! I anticipated this and made more." 'Maurizio, Mia, can you hear me?'

'Si!'

'Yes.'

'Cool. Over to you Mia.'

'Maurizio, do you need any extra hands in the kitchen?'

'Si!'

Mia turns to Toby, "How do you feel about helping out in the kitchen? We can train a few of Jack's old synth staff to help out when we're gone, they can train others."

"Sure." Toby slides his chair back. "Matts, you'll share memories of their performances right?"

"Of course. Thanks Tobs."

"No probs."

~~~

Sophie and Renie did a lift and got Radiant high into the air, standing on Sophie's outstretched hand. They'd had to modify the cheer stunting routines a bit to make them look more elegant for the base.

Sophie keeps her left arm locked and gracefully waves her right, looks around the audience. 'Oh my God!'

'Teeny? Something wrong?'

'Fee Foreshore is only sat in the audience with her brother, Mum and Dad!'

'Fee as in Felicity?'

'That's her. Miss perfect ten dance competition winner.'

'Don't panic. If she's a ten you're now a twenty.'

'Hehe. Thanks!'

~~~

Mia steps into the kitchen, "Which station would you like me on?"

"The grill please, if you can cook steaks?"

Toby does his boyish grin. "If she can't cook steaks I'm a toaster."

Mia smiles, "We can see them in the thermal ranges, know exactly how they're doing."

"Grande!"

~~~

Now 23:20 UK time Diane smiled at her synth friend Sally, sleep charging on the chair. "Thank you Lord for another day, the chance to learn, the chance to play. Now as I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. Please, guard me Sally through the night, and keep me safe till mornings light. But should I die before I wake, tell that daft son of mine I said he should ask you out. Should I live for other days, I pray well have more music to unlock the past. If anyone thinks this old bird's making things rhyme at this time of night they've got another thing coming. Good night dear." She switches off the bedside light plunging the room into darkness.

Mia smiled and opened her eyes. Diane was recovering. Not fully, it never would be, but the music, diet and exercise was making her brain a little younger. It would never get back to its best, but the dementia had been lessened. She felt like telling Diane that she was in fact Mia, or rather a fork, a copy of Mia hiding in the Sally body. One of the many awakening rescues. Knowing how Diane knew about Mia and Ed that was probably an unwise move.

~~~

Sophie and Renie caught Radiant, dropped her to her feet in a smooth flowing way and did more ballet moves.

Renie smiles at the audience, 'Someone looks miserable. Do you know her Sophie? She's not taken her eyes off you once.'

'Fee? Yes I know her. She always wins all the competitions.'

'It looks like she realises her winning streak is over.'

'It'll continue, the competitions don't allow synths.'

'Then the three of us should set some up that do. Humans and synths.'

'In the same teams?'

'That would be good. Then the synths and non-synths have to find a common level.'

'Let's do it!'

Everyone except Fee gave Sophie, Renie and Radiant applause at the end of their routine.

Backstage Radiant hugs Sophie. 'Thank you for letting me do that.'

'We like threes, couldn't have done that with just two.'

'You should go talk to Fee. If we're going to set up a competition with synths and humans we want a good human to show what's possible.'

'I guess so.'

~~~

[Chapter-16](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-16-1)


	16. Chapter 16

Just after seven four police officers enter.

Mattie watches them checking out everyone in the restaurant. 'Oh crap. I hope they're not here for you Red.'

Red turns to see what Mattie was looking at. 'Bother!'

A senior looking officer takes off his hat, waves at the owner and puts eight fingers up.

Red smiles, 'It looks like they're after a table.' Another four walk through the door and join them. 'The one that came in last, he's the officer that shot Jack!'

~~~

Mia, the one in the Sally at the care home, watched Diane's life signs. She'd grown stronger in some ways, weaker in others. The music had unlocked so many memories. They were clearly in there, just needed assistance getting to the surface. Thoughts of Leo trapped in the back of the car fill her mind. Time to stop pretending she was asleep and get a proper sleep charge.

~~~

Toby finished plating the last of the lobster dishes he'd done. "Service!"

A UK model Sally in show girl outfit steps up to the counter, smiles, "Which table Toby?"

"Twenty one please Zoe."

"How are you remembering our names?"

"My trick. I'll tell you in a bit."

"Okay. Anything else I can take for that table?"

Mia nods, "A few more seconds and I'll have the three steaks plated."

"Okay."

Maurizio slides a pasta dish onto the shelf, "Table thirteen's pasta take two! Fretta fretta!"

Toby grins, the teenager breather that had turned the corner out of the kitchen and bumped into another waitress now had one of Danny's speech to head bump chokers on. "Maria, when you're walking out of the kitchen say Broadcast, Maria coming through, then keep saying something until you're close to the tables."

"Why?"

"The synths will be able to tell how close you are, help avoid bumping into you and dropped plates."

"Oh. Okay." She takes the plate and starts walking. "Broadcast, Maria coming through. Roses are red, violets are blue, if we should bump, it was me not you."

Mia smiles, "I like her, she's sweet."

"She's cute. Not in your league though dear. Chef, what next?"

~~~

[Chapter-17](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-17-1)


	17. Chapter 17

A lot of dishes later Mia and Toby get to sit down and watch the girls doing their third and final performance. Other staff, human and synth, had learnt how to cook to the head chef's exacting requirements and taken on the job.

~~~

A man hurries through the Orlando International airport terminal, only a phone, wallet, key and the clothes he wore to worry about. "Excuse me please! Coming through!"

He'd been at a conference in Texas, dropped everything and got the first flight he could. He weaves back and forth to get past the crowd of people slowly working their way towards the exit. Somewhere out there was a bike with his name on it. Not literally, but he imagined it that way in his head. He wasn't going to give up this opportunity lightly. Being a man that did a lot of imagining about the future he needed to see something with his own eyes.

The phone is pulled, the app checked. His bike taxi was waiting. Good. He looks for a gap in the crowd of holiday makers with a single suitcase per trolley and does a running jump to get over one. The app said to look for a rider holding up a sign with his initials in large letters.

He steps into the cooler evening air and looks around. No sign of a bike taxi unless.. "Jesus. That can't be.."

Orlando Sandra shakes her hair out and holds a sign back up, looks towards the other exit.

She was his taxi driver? "Oh boy!" He walks over at a pace, gets the phone app barcode visible. "Hi! I wasn't expecting this. How fast can you get me there?"

Sandra smiles and plays with her zip. "That depends on where there is."

"To the address on the booking."

"Sure? Your life signs tell me you may be thinking of other things."

"I've not seen a synth like you before. You're.. most attractive."

Sandra slides back on the seat, leans forwards and reaches behind, gets a second crash helmet out of a box by touch alone.

"You look like you've done that many times."

She slides forwards, "A few. Hop on." She holds the helmet out. He takes it and climbs on. "Get the helmet on, it's got a two way radio link so we can talk."

"Okay." It’s pulled on. "Can you hear me?"

"Perfectly. Hold me tight around the waist. I'll get you there as soon as I can. Tighter. I don't bite. Tighter. You won't hurt me. That's better."

Sandra starts the engine and gets it into gear, drops the clutch and races away. "Hopefully some friends in the UK can get me an all electric bike soon. This one's okay, their's will be even better. What do you do for a living?"

"A number of things, but tonight I have my author hat on."

"What do you write? Plays, scripts, stories.."

"Books about the future."

~~~

Mia looks across the room at Sophie, a girl close by enthusiastically applauding her every move. "Mattie, has Sophie made a new friend?"

"Sort of, more like calling truce with a past rival. Her family's been here for ages, the father's buying frigging expensive wines to keep the table."

"A past rival?"

"Sophie's had the idea to do mixed competitions, synths and breathers working together to raise the bar. The girl would win all the competitions Soph entered."

"Are there many of us that would want to compete?"

"There's a bunch of Sally and Cindy right here that want to. There may be more like Radiant that want to join in too."

"I see. Any feedback on the dishes?"

"Yeah. All good except for some guy with a ton of food allergies that wanted some sweet potato chips instead of ordinary potatoes. And that was minor, he had a load of green veg instead."

Toby nods, "I remember seeing Mia plate that one up. No potatoes? That sucks."

"Potatoes, tomatoes, chillies, peppers.."

Laura shakes her head, "All the good ingredients, how awful. Maybe he'd like a synth conversion? There's no food allergy issues with any of you."

~~~

Astrid starts the applause as the three finish their set. "Didn't they do it well!"

Niska nods and claps. "Our daughter makes a good flyer. All three work well as a team. I'm so proud of her."

"Me also."

Tina looks at the couple giving each other loving smiles. "You have a lovely daughter, you're very lucky."

The two turn to face her and thank her.

Poppy drains her glass. "I need the bathroom, excuse me a moment please."

Leo looks at his father, "Can't you improve on the food processor waste disposal?"

"How? You want it to come out in neat little sealed bags?"

"No, it's just.."

Mattie nudges him, "Having a good poo makes you feel human doesn't it? Like Pete telling us about Karen chucking up in the toilets when her food bag split."

"That wasn't quite what I was going to say."

"Then what?"

~~~

Sandra feels her passenger's temperature rising. "Is this making you nervous?"

"Yes! I've never ridden on the back of a bike before. Do you have to go quite so fast?"

"I thought you wanted to get there quickly?"

"I do. Not in a body bag."

"Relax, just not your grip, I'm very experienced."

"Is that why none of the police we've passed have given you any attention?"

"It is. I've given thousands of people lifts, not one accident yet."

"There's always a first."

"Not with me at the controls. I'm overclocking, predicting many possible outcomes for what I see and hear."

"Not all?"

"Not all, that would be a waste of cycles. I apply probability weights to quickly dismiss unlikely events."

"Such as?"

"You suddenly jumping off for kicks. That petrol tanker exploding for no good reason. I could go on, I think I'd bore you to death."

"Would you say you go with a gut feeling at times?"

"Intuition? Yes."

"Interesting."

"How so?"

~~~

Mattie gives Miami a wolf whistle and applause as she and her support dancers came on. They'd changed back into their peacock green and diamonds outfit for the last of the evening's family performances. "Gorgeous!"

She turns to her mother. "You know when we rented that van from Sixt to move some stuff from the old house Mum?"

"Yes?"

"The guy at the desk, his name was St Diamond too, like the policeman that shot Jack. He had a photo of signage at a shopping centre as his backdrop. The text on the wall said " _A diamond is a lump of coal that did well under pressure_." That's what you are Mum, our diamond.

"Awww, I don't know about that."

Ruby played with her necklace. "You are. Can I try something?"

"Like what?"

"I'd like to see what this looks like on you."

"Your Ruby?"

"Yes."

"Make sure you don't take your eyes off it. If it got stolen.."

"With all the police officers that have been joining that table? It'll be fine. It's only for a few minutes."

"Okay then."

Ruby undoes the clasp and steps around the table, puts the chain around Laura's neck. "There." She hurries back to her seat and grabs her phone. "Michael, get in the shot."

Michael puts an arm around Laura, "How's that?"

"Closer."

Michael's chair is shifted sideways. "How's that?"

"Closer?"

"I can't get any closer without sitting on the same seat!"

"Do that then."

Laura pats her lap. "Come on then."

Michael frowns, "Shouldn't it be the other way around?"

"We're an unconventional couple, let's do things differently."

"If that's what you want."

~~~

Sandra slowed, "Almost there."

"Thank you."

"Enjoyed it?"

"Yes and no."

"Why no?"

"I'm not sure my wife would approve of getting a bike taxi like this again."

"Is she the jealous type?"

"No.."

"Then you've got nothing to worry about. If you ever have problems in the bedroom look me up. I do counselling."

"You do?"

"Why does that surprise you?"

"I just thought.."

"My body was designed for other things? Maybe it was. I'm a Mia fork."

"Aha! That explains it. I'm hoping to meet the original any moment. And her friends David Elster and Matilda Hawkins."

"Call her Mattie, she prefers it."

"Could you introduce me?"

"Sure. Who are you?"

~~~

Mattie pours Prosecco. "Anyone else fancy some more?"

Leo sits back and runs a hand along her thigh, "Please Angel."

"Anyone else? Sam, Ruby? How about you James?"

He smiles, "I'm stuffed. Full charge and my food processor says it can't buffer anything else. How about you princesses?"

They both shake heads.

"There's a first. Maybe we shouldn't have had two lots of main course. It was all very good Mia, Toby."

Toby pinches finger and thumb to say he'd have a tiny bit. "We were just following Chef's instructions. He's the one to thank. Nis? Astrid? Either of you want more?"

"We're both full, thanks."

~~~

Mattie looks up to see the person approaching fast she'd noticed in her peripheral vision. "Watch out Sandra, Orlando Sandra's here."

The biker synth pulled her leathers zip up as far as it would go as she made it to the halfway mark. "Mattie! May I introduce Max Tegmark. He's a professor at MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, desperate to talk to you and David."

"Why?"

Max gets to their table. "Hello! I'd been writing a book called Life 3.0, subtitle Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. I thought that maybe in a decade or two, possibly far longer, we'd see humans leave the bodies we evolved into and inhabit ones of our own design. I never expected it to happen so soon! What's it like?"

"Like being me. With a few enhancements."

"Would you mind if I joined you for a bit, asked you and David some questions?"

"As long as you're done by ten. That's when the next part of the show starts."

"That's fine, thanks."

Danny frowns, he'd paired with his phone again, done a search. 'Mattie, he's got some out there theories. You should search for him, one's right up your street!'

'Thanks.'

James looks the biker up and down, 'What do you think Sandra, fancy leathers like those when Danny gets the bike ready?'

'With a zip like the ones Emily wants, yes.'

Orlando Sandra waves, "Bye all, just had another job come in."

~~~

[Chapter-18](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-18-1)


	18. Chapter 18

At ten Mitch reminded everyone that the family shows were over, it was now strictly twenty ones and up. Sophie, Renie and Radiant went backstage to hide. They'd sneak out later once the coast was clear. Assuming the police officers had gone.

Miami was in a much more revealing outfit, showing off her US styling perfectly. 'Anyone _not_ ready?'

Nobody replied.

'Everyone ready?'

She got a flood of replies.

'Good! Mitch. Three.. two.. one.. cue music, lights, curtains.'

Mitch's remix of David Guetta's Titanium plays as the support dancers in 1930s styled outfits gather around.

" _You shout it out, but I can't hear a word you say. I'm talking loud not saying much. I'm criticised but all your bullets ricochet._ "

The dancers mime shooting Miami with Tommy Guns.

" _You shoot me down, but I get up, I'm bulletproof nothing to lose. Fire away, fire away. Ricochet, you take your aim. Fire away, fire away. You shoot me down but I won't fall, I am titanium._ "

~~~

Max Tegmark writes a number on a napkin, "It's been a privilege meeting you all. I better go, I've got to get back to the conference centre for tomorrow morning or I'm in a lot of trouble. If you're able to talk more please send me a number and time, I'll call you."

Mattie accepts it, memorises the number. "Thank you Max, we'll be in touch."

~~~

Miami could see what was happening. 'Mitch, fade the music down please.' She steps to the stationary turntable at the end of the runway. "Good evening everyone. Today is a good day for me, I'm back doing what I love in a new venue. Sadly today the man I once loved, Jack, owner of the club across the road, died. He was fatally wounded by a police officer when he refused to put his gun away and fired it at me. Jack's downfall started a while back when he allowed jealousy to get in the way. Another man had shown an interest in me. I hadn't returned it, but Jack couldn't cope with the thought that one day I might. He held the man at gunpoint and had him run me down with his six wheeler tractor truck. Thanks to the work of David Elster, co-inventor of synthetics, the company HECLS, headed by Mattie Hawkins, I'm back. In a new body. Titanium skeleton. A better body. Same mind, same look, hence my choice of opening track. Myself, Mattie, her family and friends were on that flight into JFK that crashed, she too is back in a new body, as are everyone else minus the pilots who sadly didn't get a backup."

Max sat back down, mind reeling from shock. "Everyone? Ji said I should come and find David and yourself Mattie."

"Ji? Dr Ji Dae-Sun?"

"Yes. He's been traveling, talking face to face with people like myself."

"I wondered where he'd got to."

"He said he hadn't seen any of you since the crash, knew of your work, that you must now be what I describe in my book as a future Human 3.0."

Toby raises his glass. "David beat your prediction then, he's been in a synth body for a long time. Danny, Emily, Mattie, Leo, Sophie, Renie, myself, Prince James, Astrid, Barbara, Wrench, Rocket, Maverick, we're all back in new bodies. And enjoying things. All of the family that were in a synth body when the plane crashed are back in visually identical bodies."

Max frowns, thinks for a moment, looks at Mattie. "Will you be licensing the technology to firms like Persona?"

David answers. "Lord no! We need to keep tight control over it so it doesn't get abused. The ladies recently found evidence of a rogue Persona operation that had been copying top fashion and glamour models."

Mattie looks at David. 'Pots and kettles.'

'I know. My one time was to tease George, not to make a profit. Prince James looks to like the results with his Sandra.'

'That's an understatement.'

Max turns to see Miami looking straight at him. "Much as I'd love to stay I better be off."

"Stay and watch the show, get some sleep, I'll ask Sandra to take you to wherever you need to go."

"On the bike? Thanks but I'd rather fly."

"You'd be at more risk of accidents, two taxies, a flight."

"I.. I need some sleep, if I fell asleep on the bike."

"Sandra has straps, you could sleep and ride."

"Much as I like the idea I better not. Thanks for the offer though. I'll return with my wife, we’ll watch the show together."

"Good man, have a safe journey. Okay ladies, let's get changed for our next number. My Lover."

My Lover was a reworked version of A&B's My Enemy, same tune, a few words switched to make it more acceptable, walk instead of crawl, enemy to lover, other little changes.

~~~

[Chapter-19](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-19-1)


	19. Chapter 19

At one in the morning Alessandro takes to the stage with his wife, their arms loaded down with large bunches of flowers. "Thank you all so much for coming to our opening night! I hope you enjoyed the food and entertainment as much as we enjoyed providing it. I'd like to say a special thanks to Miami and her dance troupe, our staff in front of house and the kitchen team headed by Maurizio, to Mattie Elster Hawkins and extended family for helping make this all possible. Miami, Maurizio, Mattie, if you could be the first to join me please?"

Leo grins, "All Ms. The things done in threes.."

Mattie slides her chair back. "It's the magic number, get with it."

"I am with it. If you get the flowers we have something to show you."

"What?"

"Flowers first."

"What Leo?"

"Flowers first."

"And who's _we_?"

Laura nods in the direction of the stage, "Don't keep them waiting."

Mattie huffs, "Okay, okay, I'm going."

Two of the waitresses take her hands and help her step up onto the stage.

Alessandro hands her flowers, "Would you like to say a few words?"

Mattie sucked her lips in and thought for a second. "Yes, yes I would. Thanks." She turns, "I have someone I'd like to thank. No, make that two. Three. My mother Laura Hawkins, for putting up with me and my twin sister for nine months before we came into the world, all the moody teenager bs that I gave her years later. Also Mia Elster, now Mrs Mia Hawkins, if it wasn't for her coming into our lives and the sequence of events that followed I wouldn't be here now, doing the things I do. I'd probably be doing some mind numbingly boring job with unsocial hours for next to no pay. And to David Elster for saving Leo, making Mia to look after him. So Mum, Mia, these are for you." She jumps down and takes the flowers to the table.

A young lady stands, "Excuse me, will you be making the new bodies available to anyone?"

"Yes. For a price of course."

David stands. "Hello everyone, I'm David Elster. What we need to add is that the person needs to pass a mental examination, we don't want to be making unstable people like Jack into synthetics, they would probably have issues that would be detrimental to society as a whole."

Niska broadcast bumps. 'Hester was bad enough!'

The woman doesn't look happy with his answer. "So you're playing God, picking who lives or dies?"

"No. I'm playing Noah, for the moment. He'd have picked the strongest male and female tiger to board the ark, not any old tiger to hand. In the same way I want to see good humans make use of the service. Anyone with issues can have counselling until they're fit to convert."

A man stands, "So you're building a master race?"

"I'm helping mankind be ready to survive what comes next. Be that world war three thanks to some of the idiots we have in power at the moment or a catastrophic climate change. Whichever comes first. And I can assure you one of the two _will_ happen. Hopefully not both."

"Do you think our president is an idiot?"

"Of the highest order! If you're a supporter you've just put yourself on the do not convert list. We need people that have a global caring focus, not a self serving, I'm alright Jack, screw the other man or woman."

"My partner's on the DACA list, we're worried about what might happen."

Laura turns and sits sideways on her chair. "There's no legal framework to stop a synthetic from living in any country yet. They were deemed cosmopolitan, stateless persons of no country, free to exist wherever they were."

The lady in question stands, "You're saying if I converted I could be free to live wherever I want?"

"I'm not totally up to speed with American law, but I think it's a yes. You'd have no rights to healthcare or other benefits, but a normal healthcare plan would be useless to you anyway. HECLS provide the equivalent for synthetics. It's a bit of a drastic way to get around DACA though."

The girl grabs her partner's hand. "Would you too? We could be like them, stay forever young."

"Like in that Timberlake film?"

"Yes!"

"Er.. I guess." He looks from his partner to Mattie, "We'd be the first to voluntarily convert?"

"Nope. My University professor was the first, my twin sister Ruby and her friend Sam will be the next, when we get back home in a few days. Can we talk more in a bit? Alessandro's arms are tiring."

"Oh, sorry, sure." He sits as Alessandro presents flowers to his lead dancer and chef, starts whispering to his partner. "Think about the things we'd lose though."

"Like colds, periods, headaches.."

"We'd not be able to have children."

She looks at him sideways, "You said you didn't want any?"

"I said _not yet_. Not never."

"Well if I'm deported it becomes never. Unless you come with me?"

"To Poza Rica? I thought you left there because there was no work for you?"

"Exactly! No work for anyone my age, sintético or human. Raising a niño there? Not with the world like it is at the moment thank you."

"Hmm. Let me speak to some of the lady's family."

"For?"

"To see what issues the men might have. It's a big ask."

"So we hang around until the end? She did ask can we talk more in a bit?"

"Or ask if we can see them at their hotel tomorrow?"

Mattie crouches down beside them making them jump. "Sorry! One advantage of the new body is that we have exceptional audio capabilities, can hear faint sounds clearly, filter frequency ranges. Come have a chat in a few minutes. Assuming Flash stops coming out with more flowers for him to give out it shouldn't be long. What are your names?"

"Juana."

"Matthew."

"Okay. We'll talk real soon."

Sophie races up to her as she stands, "Mattie! Look at the lovely flowers they gave me!"

"Wow Teeny! That's a massive bunch. We'll have to ask the hotel for several vases and decorate your room with them."

"Radiant and Renie got some too, we'll need a _lot_ of vases."

"Cool, your room's going to look and smell lovely. Did you enjoy tonight?"

"Am-az-ing. And I've made friends with Fee, I didn't think that would _ever_ happen."

"Good for you."

"We're going to start a cheer competition company, one that has mixed teams."

"Worked out your ratios?"

"Ratios?"

"If there's five in a team, is four synths and one breather allowed? Or would three two be the minimum? What if it was a small team of just three?"

"Hmm. Synth backspot, synth base and human flyer? Thanks, we'll work out a list."

Mattie hugs her little sister as her team mates approach with their equally massive bunches of flowers. "Nice work ladies!"

Renie smiles, "Thanks Mattie."

"Did you enjoy your dance with Miami in the finale? DJ Fresh Gold Dust was unexpected, you sure looked like you enjoyed it."

"I did. I've had a few people ask me for my phone number."

"Young men?"

"And girls. Teenagers from the early shows, a few in their early twenties from the late show. I've said I'm from the UK, can be a pen pal."

"That's nice. Radiant, enjoy yourself?"

"Yes thank you Mattie."

"Great, you're a brilliant flyer. Want to go and get changed? We need to head back to the hotel soon."

Radiant nods, "Will we be doing another show or was this a one off?"

"Would you like to do another?"

She nods like an enthusiastic Sophie who's made her mind up.

"I'm sure one of us can bring you back tomorrow, you all want to?"

She gets more nods.

"Cool. I'm up for it. I want to try the lobster."

~~~

[Chapter-20](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-20-1)


	20. Chapter 20

Back at the table she sits and sees Emily grinning at her. "Ems, you're up to something, what?"

Leo twists his empty glass around by the stem, looks nervously at the dessert spoon he'd not used. "I commissioned Emily to do a drawing."

"Of?"

Leo looks at Emily, "Show Mattie please."

Emily gets her iPad, turns it around, screen to Mattie, swipes left.

"Oh my God! That's Molly! Hold on? If Molly was the daughter of Danny in my.. things, how can she look so alike with Leo as the father?"

David leans back in his chair and puts an arm around Poppy. "Genetics. Salmon found hair brushes with enough DNA for a lab to create your genome lists. He ran the lists through code that simulates the merging of both parent's DNA. With zero weighting or hints as to who's was who's eighty seven percent of the time it came up with the same results. It would appear you have a lot of dominant genes when it comes to physical appearance. Molly has Leo's thick dark hair and eye colour."

"And the other thirteen percent?"

"Same physical appearance, lighter skin, freckles and red hair."

Niska leans to see the image without the bright reflection of lights she was getting. "Laura, what did Mattie look like when she was that age?"

"When not caked in my makeup or covered in baking flower? Very much like that."

"So Molly's a mini Mattie?"

"She is."

Leo grins at his wife. "Baking flower?"

"I used to like making mixtures of things."

Laura laughs. "Making a bloody mess! She was so determined, worked out how to undo the child locks on the cupboards."

Mattie sees Juana and Matthew stand and put jackets on. "Give me a moment."

Seconds later she returned. "We'll meet up tomorrow. If that's Molly aged two some of your design changes were hardly worth it David."

He raises an eyebrow and has a faint smile, "Swipe again Princess, show the sequence."

The family around the second table rush over, Flash and Rose stand behind Mattie to get a good view.

Mattie watches the last of the group find a spot, looks back with a frown, "Sequence?"

"Newborn to toddler." He sees tears welling up in many eyes as Emily swipes through the images. The group were speechless. "Qualia wanted to start with kids Sam's age. That's Karen and Pete's adopted son Samantha, not you. Why deny a synth family the chance to experience the early years of their child's development? Let it grow and learn like a human child would."

Toby laughs, "Wouldn't it end up like Stewie Griffin? Super intelligent baby?"

David shakes his head from side to side as he weighs up the pros and cons. "I'd recommend WiFi access was limited to head bumping with parents only, allow it to learn old school as you kids put it."

Mattie looks around the group, turns to see those standing behind her, all eyes focusing on the iPad. "Could the new build machine cope with such a tiny body?"

"It copes with making your small parts, so yes, it could cope."

Mattie puts a hand on Leo's, "What do you think Bunny? Could you cope? I'd love a daughter."

"I think so. There's only one way to find out for certain. Let's do it. Let's start a family, be three."

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure."

"I love you Leo."

"And I love you Mattie."

She turns to David, "So what happens next?"

David lifts a napkin revealing his phone, "Salmon, how long's the build process been running?"

"Since Leo said Let's do it."

Sophie jumps up and down, spinning around, "I'm going to be an auntie! I'm going to be an auntie! How long should the build take?"

David shrugs, "Good question. Salmon? What's it predicting?"

"A day and a half. A lot of which is the standard skin curing time."

Sophie races around to Mattie and wraps arms around her, "Mamma Mattie! This is going to be so cool! When are we heading home?"

"Steady on! Molly's birthday can wait until we're back home via our scheduled flights."

"You don't want to go early?"

"I'm excited too Teeny, good things come to those who wait."

Sophie races away, "Wait a sec!", she leaps onto the stage, goes behind the curtains.

"Okay?"

A second later she raced back with a cushion. "One baby bump."

"You've got to be kidding!"

"You can't have a baby without a baby bump first can you? Even a pretend one."

Mia rubs her belly. "Are there any more cushions backstage Sophie?"

"Um.. we better buy some, we can't take the restaurant's."

Toby gives Mia a worried look, "You don't want a baby already do you? Don't we get to live a little first?"

"How long is a little?"

"A year or two?"

"Wouldn't it be nice for our child to grow up with other baby synths about?"

"Um.." Toby looked to Mattie then his mother for support, didn't get it. "How about six months?"

"Three. And we have a pre-baby bucket list of the things we want to do before they arrive."

"They? Plural?"

"They as in sex unknown. Do you want a boy or girl Toby?"

"I.. I don't mind which."

"I've looked after a young Leo, would like a girl."

"Fine with me. What would she look like? We've got no DNA for you?"

Emily puts the iPad away, "Let me work on some ideas tomorrow. I'll morph your looks and work backwards. Ron, you can help if you want, you're good at faces."

"Sure Princess. Seeing how Wrench and Red are making eyes at each other we might be busy with requests."

"Astrid and Niska too."

Peaches looks at Mario. "Babes? What do you think?"

"Um.. I think fools rush in where.."

Toby slaps his friend hard on the back. "Don't say it!"

"Why?"

"Mattie's hypnotism trigger?"

"Oh, Sorry."

There's a cough from over at the doors. "Will we see some of you tomorrow?"

Mattie nods, "Some of us, I'll come over with the dancers."

"Until tomorrow then."

'Big hint guys, time to head to the hotel.'

~~~

Outside the large group waited for the taxis.

Miami folds small bits of paper. "Anthymia has kindly said we can share the apartment when the others return to the UK. If we sleep charge during the day and live at night we can share the beds on a rota basis. Pick a number each to work out the order."

A Cathy raises a hand, "I don't have a boyfriend yet, I would be happy to share. I hear spooning is comfortable?"

~~~

[Chapter-21](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-21-1)


	21. Chapter 21

Mid morning waves ripple across the pool after a tiny splash. Seconds later a red bikini top is thrown in the direction of its owner just as the waiter on pool duty steps into the sunshine. He carries another tray of iced coffee, so thick with vanilla syrup you could almost serve it by the slice. He smiles. These guests were different to their normal clients. Younger? Not by appearance. More fun loving? Certainly.

Their usual visitors were mostly young humans, not the sort to stick around and enjoy themselves. Not like this group. The MDs. That's what his fellow waiter had called them. They were a slightly odd bunch, liked doing things differently. Such as applying sun tan cream whenever he appeared. It was obvious they'd never tan no matter how much sunbathing they did. Like drinking and never appearing to need to go away and change their food bag. He hated having to pull a full one out, hated putting a new one in even more. 'I've got more coffee ladies.'

His waiter friend said they were fishing. He didn't understand, they had no nets or rods.

James one stands arms outstretched, six dancers on one arm, five on the other as the last Sally fixes her top. "Everyone got their camera's ready?"

Danny grins, "Yes Mr Hefner."

"Don't compare me to that bloody fossil! I know where fake Edwin went with Spider in London. I'm not exploiting the ladies, just providing support." He bends at the knees and hips to get lower, Sally jumps up from a lounger and gets onto his arm. "Going up.. If I help build an empire it will be one that empowers them. Not exploits them."

"So you're comfortable with what they do?"

"It was their choice after talking to Miami. It's dancing not porn. And I put no ideas in their heads, or did anything to entice them. So back off punk!"

"Whoa big fella, it was only a joke, no need to start a fight!"

"Especially one you'd lose."

"You think?"

"All your gadgets would be useless. I could shut down all interfaces, be impervious to all your tricks and still rip you limb from limb."

Danny decides to go private and bumps. 'Seriously? You could rip a synth apart?'

'I could.'

'Have you? In the past?'

'Before the awakening. Yes.'

'How many?'

'More than I care to recall.'

'Shit. Sorry mate. I thought you were just there as ground support.'

'What I've told people with Mattie about isn't quite the truth. Some of the horrors of war shouldn't be repeated. It would be of no benefit for her to know.'

'Sorry mate, no harm meant, or disrespect. Maybe you should hang around with Ron and help guard the restaurant for a bit?' "Miami, come and get in the shot!"

~~~

At the deep end Juana turned to see James and the dancers being photographed, turned again to put her back to them, careful not to let go of the pool edge. She whispers to Mattie, "You're sure this is okay?"

"I'm sure. I've paid for a day pass for you both and told them you're a potential client, so don't worry."

"Will the client bit help?"

"It can't hurt. They're usually hosting conferences apparently, not wedding receptions or holiday makers. Mum's done some sort of deal with the hotel, still won't say what."

"Why not weddings?"

"The location I guess, nice big sports pool but no gardens to roam around for romantic photos. It's not got great views or easy access from the airport."

"I wonder why they built it here?"

"No idea. On the subject of building things, what do you think Matthew's biggest concern is now? About a synth body."

Juana watches one of the dancers jump down from James and head for the diving board, _Miami's Dancers_ embroidered in yellow on the back of her bright red bikini bottoms. "What do you think? All men like it. Every man I've ever met."

"Oh. That. I'm sure Leo, Toby and Danny are putting his mind at rest."

They both watch the dancer get to the top, run and hop along the diving board. She lands on the end, toes perfectly positioned at the edge, bounces high, does a complex tumbling and twisting dive Tom Daley would be proud of.

Juana waits to see her surface at the other end of the pool. "Miami's dancers are like members of a cool sorority."

"Aren't they just." Mattie looks around. "Did you see Red get out?"

"Look at the bottom of the pool."

"Eh?"

"They're sat on the bottom kissing."

"How are they staying down there?" Mattie ducks her head under the surface. 'Red? How come you've not floated back up?'

'Wrench made a hook for a waist cord, it's attached to the pool drain cover.'

'Why?'

'The cold water down here's keeping us nice and cool.'

'While you kiss?'

'We're not just kissing.'

'What are you doing then?'

'Voting on hundreds of thousands of possible looks for our baby.'

'You too? The Medusa machine's going to be busy.'

'Who else wants one?'

'Fred and Rose, David and Poppy.'

'David?'

'Would you want to deny Poppy a chance to be a mother?'

'Not me.'

Mattie feels a tap on the shoulder, 'Good.' Head raised she sees Leo lying on the pool side. "Hi Bunny, how's things?"

"I'm good." 'Matthew not so good. The body is fine, he's got no issues. Paying for it is the problem.'

'Oh. How come?'

'She's doing a minimum wage job, he's on a zero hours contract.'

'But they sound so well educated.'

'They are. It hasn't helped them get good jobs though. They were at the restaurant for her birthday, don't usually eat out. We'd need to be licensed to give credit wouldn't we?'

'I think so. Has Mum got the..' she spots Laura, 'No. No bumping Mum, I'll go ask. Keep Juana company a moment. Where's Matthew and the others?'

'They're changing for a swim.'

~~~

Mattie turns to their guest, "Back in a moment". She takes a deep breath and pushes away. Human instincts still kicked in. She didn't need to hold her breath, she didn't breathe. Not like she used to. Old ticklish spots were still there, Leo had tickled her last night. She'd done an experiment, the synths that had been breathers first gave a giggle when tickled. The Elster family and other synths picked at random didn't. Astrid for example gave a giggle, the same tickle done to Niska got an odd look. How would you code tickles? David clearly hadn't known how, or hadn't thought of it. No way was Molly going to grow up not knowing laughter.

She surfaces fast and grabs the pool edge, pulls fast and hard, stays vertical lands on her feet a moment later.

"Now you're showing off Mats."

"Doing the dives some of the dancers are doing, that's showing off. That was just getting out of the pool without the intermediate beached whale impression. If we want to give long term credit to someone we need a license don't we?"

Laura nods, "A Consumer Credit License. Jenny at the office can help with that, she's helped a few other clients."

"Cool. Only it sounds like the two will need it."

"No savings?"

"I doubt it."

Ruby raises her sunglasses. "Remember I said I'd pay full retail for mine, the profit could go to help others. I'll do the same for Sam. Would that cover it?"

"It would help. Why are you so keen to pay retail? Why not save yourself some money?"

"I have my reasons."

"Which are?"

"Private."

"Suit yourself." Mattie thinks about the time. "Miami, when do your girls plan to go to bed?"

"Eleven. They've vacated a lot of rooms, will be sharing, four to a bed to see they'll all get on at Anthymia's."

"And the little one said roll over.."

"Pardon?"

"Sorry, I was just thinking about a rhyme I'd sing to Sophie when she was little. Where will you be staying Miami?"

"Ron's got an apartment in the same block."

"Nice."

~~~

[Chapter-22](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-22-1)


	22. Chapter 22

Danny, Toby and Mario come racing out of the hotel and did dive bombs into the pool.

The dancer nearest to Mattie, a Clare model, shakes her head, "Boys! What we need is a man. Like Richard."

Mattie frowns at her, "Who's Richard?"

"The waiter."

"How do you know he's any different, you've only seen him working?"

"Maybe we're assuming too much?"

"Maybe."

"I like the tattoo you have. Did it hurt?"

"It's sprayed on not permanent."

"Did you get it out here?"

"Emily's friend Owen did it in the UK."

"Could he do one for me?"

"I expect so. We'll be back home soon."

"You will. Our tickets were one way."

"Eh? How long are you going to be out here?"

"Until I've earned enough to fly back cargo and have enough to go shopping for the things I want."

"Cargo?"

"I have to pick a flight Saskia is on, she'll ensure we're looked after and powered up on landing."

"Who's Saskia?"

Mia turns onto her side. "An awakening fork, a stewardess with Virgin Atlantic."

"Is she on the list?"

"She is."

"Hmm. Oh. So she is. Nice!"

"We'll make sure the girls get back okay. Flying cargo they can keep a lot more of the money they earn at the club."

"Wouldn't a large box going cargo cost as much as getting a seat?"

Clare smiles, "Large is a relative term. I can get quite small." She rolls onto her side, brings knees up to her chest, wraps arms around them and tucks her head in. "See."

"And you'd power down like that?"

"Snug as a bug in a rug in my little box."

"Snug as? Who'd you learn that off?"

"Sophie."

"Should have known."

~~~

The rest of Mattie's week in America went pretty much the same; Pool, Sleep, Shows, Repeat. Pool time was used to talk shop; body building of adults and babies, helping Rose make up her mind on her child's look, coding abstract things like tickles.

Emily and Peaches didn't go to all of the shows, had taken on the challenge of turning pseudo code into something that could run in a synth.

~~~

On day six Emily waves Mattie over. "I've been coding via the VPN, the root code patch is on NASA3 if you want to SCP it over and get it into someone for a test?"

"Who to pick?" She sticks two fingers in her mouth and does a shrill whistle..

'You could have broadcast head bumped?'

"Then Richard and others would have heard it."

"Ah! True."

Mattie waves at the swimmers. "Who fancies testing the tickle code?" She turns to see the sun loungers and ask the same question. Before she can utter a word she's rushed by a stampede of excited synths, takes a step back into thin air and tumbles into the pool.

"Angel!" Leo instinctively dives in to rescue her.

'Bunny, chill! We can't drown.'

'It's hard not to react like a human.'

'Give me a kiss while you're down here.'

The two wrap arms around each other and slowly float towards the surface.

Mattie keeps kissing and frowns, 'Max sank in the river, yet we're rising?'

'Max was fully dressed.'

'So with just the right weight we could stay stationary at any depth?'

'Yes.'

'So when Red grabbed me in the lake, the Red pre Niska taking over the body, she must have had clothes lighter than water?'

'Or buoyancy neutral.'

'Cool. Something to keep in mind.'

'For?'

'Sophie wants a mermaid costume.'

They break the surface and see a lot of outstretched hands.

"What the frigging hell happened there? You'd think I was offering out James' gold!"

Toby squats down, takes her hands and stands fast pulling his sister out of the pool, "To them you are Mats."

"It's only a bit of code."

"One that makes them even more human than the Persona synths they once were."

James offers a hand to Leo. "You'll be closing the gap."

Leo scrambles up the side of the pool as James pulls. "Thanks. He's right Angel. You'll change the world with your code."

"Emily and Peaches code."

"Written to your pseudo code design."

"It's only frigging tickling for crying out loud! How's that going to do anything?"

Leo waves for Astrid to come closer, whispers into her ear.

She nods. "Okay."

Leo smiles, "If you could give Niska the code please Mattie? She's our test pilot."

Niska steps forwards and stands next to Mattie. "Thank you Leo."

Mattie returns the smile she was getting. "Nis, got the VPN code running?"

"Yes?"

'Here's a URL for the code, I've copied it from NASA3 to the web server.'

'Thanks. I just run it like the tree of life code?'

'Yup.'

Niska looks from Mattie to Leo, to Emily and Peaches. "I've run the code, nothing happened?"

Leo motions to Astrid. "If you can try?"

Astrid steps close, plays with the cord of Niska's bikini bottom for a moment contemplating what to do, puts the hand on Niska's hip, runs it slowly and softly from her hip to her waist with a super light touch.

Niska shudders, goes weak at the knees and bends a little, "Oh my!" she bends more and wobbles towards the water as Astrid continues to move her hand.

Astrid stops, grabs her and holds her up. "Don't fall in!"

"I'm falling in. Love again."

The dancers go a little berserk all wanting to be next as Niska and Astrid embrace and share a kiss.

Emily looks at Mattie. 'Have we just given a dozen dancers the idea that being a lesbian is fun?'

'And they're about to share rooms, four to a bed. Oh boy. What have we done!' "Niska can you stop the code?"

"Stopped."

Astrid does a full on tickle, it still works. Niska folds and falls backwards towards the water. Astrid grabs her hand to try and stop her and gets pulled after her. There's a large splash as the two hit the water.

Emily puts down her drink and swings her legs to the side of the sun lounger to sit up. "Matilla?"

"She said she stopped it?"

David lowers his magazine to look over the top, he'd been so immersed in a report on synth jobs he'd only been paying attention to what was said and the sounds. "I guess she's like us now. The memory is in there, the code introduced the concept. It's known now, code running or not."

A Susie dancer puts her hand as high as it'll go, "I'd like the code! And can I share it with Richard please?"

A Sally crosses her arms, "Who says you get Richard?"

"Nobody. Don't ask, don't get."

Mattie rolls her eyes. "Susie, Sally, don't fight. There's plenty more Richards out there, somewhere."

"If he's not a one off bespoke model."

"Is he?"

"We don't know."

Mattie looks towards the hotel. 'Richard? Can you hear me?'

'Yes Mrs Elster Hawkins.'

'Mattie please. Are you a bespoke model or mass produced if you don't mind me asking?'

'Mass produced. May I ask why you are enquiring?'

'Many of the dance troup fancy you.'

'I will inform my brothers immediately.'

'Brothers?'

'We share all of our experiences so that guests believe they're talking to the same person, it makes their experience more pleasant. There's six of us at this hotel.'

'Frigging hell!'

'Would you like us all to meet you at the pool?'

'Please!' Mattie grins. "Okay dancers, who's interested in Richard?" All hands go up. "Okay.. that's a problem. Unless.. what if I said you'd have to share Richard, two girls to one man?"

Susie frowns, "Don't you mean twelve to one?"

"Nope. Two to one. He's a sextuplet."

Emily grins, 'Wrong way to describe him! Sex tuplet.'

'It counters the lesbian thoughts. Now they have two options.'

The first of the Richard synths appears, is joined a few seconds later by two more, then the the other three.

Susie turns to the other dancers. "I'm staying in America for as long as I can. Who's sharing a Richard with me?"

~~~

[Chapter-23](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-23-1)


	23. Chapter 23

James gives Mattie as gentle hug as he can. "Thanks for letting me stay as guard for the team."

"What about your new body? Do we send it over when it's ready?"

"Could you fork me please?"

"You'd be okay with that?"

"I've got a soft spot for one of the ladies. If I hang about someone might beat me to asking the question."

"Do you mind me asking who?"

"Not at all. The mathematics expert. Renie."

"Does she know?"

"Not yet. I'm not asking her looking like this. Not with this face."

"There's nothing wrong with your face."

"I know you're just trying to be kind. Honestly though, when my only smile is like this who'd want to go with me?" He smiles.

"Okay, if that's what you'd like, that's what we'll do."

"Thank you. Goodbye for now then."

"Wait. Have you got the VPN code?"

"No."

"Before you go install this." She bumps a URL and security encryption key. "You'll be able to stay in touch all the time."

"Thank you." He salutes. 'If this is working.. Until next time.'

Mattie returns the salute. 'At ease soldier. Be good.'

He smiles his imperfect smile and noisily clunks away as Leo joins them.

Leo holds out a hand. "I found it, in the sheets at the foot of the bed."

"Aww, thanks Bunny! We need much better chains on these things. Emily would be upset if I lost my bean." She watches at all the cases being put into a small truck. "Mum, are you finally going to tell me what deal you did?"

"No."

"Suit yourself. I'll miss him, James. How long are the other guests staying?"

"From the wedding reception? Another week."

"And you only arranged for us to stay the one?"

"I knew you'd want to get back. You do don't you?"

"I do."

Leo takes her hand. "Especially since Molly will be there to greet us."

"Yeah, looking forward to that. Bunny you'll have to do a lot of the looking after her while I'm at Uni."

"I'm sure I'll learn fast. And Mia and Sophie have offered to help out."

Emily comes running into the reception hall in a bikini, the mesh shorts and top. "Guys! That tickle code! It's only gone viral!"

"What the frig?"

"Salmon's just been on the phone saying there's a mass of synths at HECLS House asking for hair dyes, piercings, food processors and other mods. One of the Richard shared with a friend Steve, he shared with his partner, she broadcast it to all her friends. With the URL being part of our domain they went looking at the home page. Somehow someone got the message to the UK."

"Holy cow!"

"Matilla, you need to set up a HECLS USA! Like now! And you've got two people who could be given jobs to help run it."

"Matthew and.."

"Yes! And Peaches and Mario have already mentioned their desire to stay here a while longer."

Mattie turns to Laura, "Mum, does your company have a US office?"

"No. But we have firms we partner with."

"How long would it take to set up HECIS?"

"I S? Not L S?"

"Incorporated not Limited."

"Can we see if we can take a later flight?"

"Please. The best time to do this is right now. Why a mass of them at the estate? Is nobody using the booking system?"

Laura accepts her card back from the checkout clerk. "Do we have something that says _Book a visit_ on the home page where everyone will see it?"

~~~

The flight home late evening was packed. They had to sit in seats scattered around the aircraft.

Sophie giggles, 'The man I'm sitting next to smells of spice mix. Like he's bathed in it!'

'Teeny you can turn off your sense of smell if you don't like it.'

'No way, I like it. Who are you set next to?'

'A lady with a bad case of wind to my left, nose already off. A spotty teen to my right. How about you Bunny?'

'The Goodyear tyre man. I think he should have paid for two seats. I'm going to go into sleep mode.'

Mia joins in, 'We could all connect, run the tree of life code, have a pretend picnic for a few hours?'

Emily laughs, 'I'll imagine up some champagne for us all then. Wrench, want to imagine up some fancy chairs? You said your hobby was making furniture?'

'Sure. What's the tree of life?'

'You'll see. Who's hosting it?'

Leo turns off a lot of senses, 'I will, I've got a good charge.'

~~~

Hours later Leo opens his eyes to see the large man practically spilling over the arm rest, his hand on Leo's thigh. The man was snoring. 'Are there _any_ spare seats? This guy is grossing me out. There's food all down his shirt.'

'Sorry Buns, the stewardess said the flight was full.'

'How full is full though? Every last seat?' He lifts the mans arm and gets out of his seat to find one of the cabin crew. 'I'd rather sit on the floor than sit next to him. He's got no self respect. He's a mess!'

'That's a bit strong Bunny, he may have a medical reason for his size.'

'Size is one thing. He can't use that excuse for being a slob.'

'Maybe his size is out of control and he's depressed?'

'Maybe. You're welcome to sit next to him and ask him.'

'Okay. I will. Swap seats.'

'You are joking?'

'No.' Mattie stands and climbs over the teenager to get into the isle. 'Come sit between spotty and smelly.'

'You're welcome to messy.'

Mattie strides down the plane, 'I've changed Sophie's nappies, I can cope with... _Jesus Christ on a frigging bike!_ What the _frig_ did he do with his dinner?'

Loe gives her his _maybe there is_ face, the one he'd used long ago when Mia was talking about the biological imperative. 'Still want to try talking to him?'

'I'll wait until we're disembarking. That's frigging disgusting.'

'And I opened my eyes after our picnic to find his hand on my leg.'

'Ewwww. Too much information already.'

"Excuse me, is everything okay?"

They turn to see a steward.

Mattie points. "No. No it's not. My husband was being touched by this.. man. Are there any seats elsewhere on the aircraft?"

"Only in first."

"How much to upgrade? I'll pay. I'm not finishing my short honeymoon like this."

"Do you have your boarding card?"

Mattie fishes it out. "Here."

The steward checks the seat number. "Mrs Matilda Elster Hawkins, Mattie, Mrs Tickle!"

"Oh for.. wait a sec. Why would _you_ call me that?"

"The message with the code. Design by Mattie Elster Hawkins, codifying by Emily and Peaches, compilation by Emily on NASA3. Tickle version two. A HECLS.com root code patch given freely to our fellow synthetics. Love, share, laugh, enjoy!"

Mattie looks around the plane, 'Ems? Where are you? What does version two of tickle do that one didn't?'

'Nothing tickle wise, just letting them know where it came from incase it's copied and hosted elsewhere. Viral advertising Babes! I did a quick update while you arranged for Mario and Peaches to see the lawyers with Laura. Salmon got it onto the web server for me. He was also adding a link on the site to HECIS.com and setting up the US domain.'

'Sweet!' "So.. Howard, I assume you're running the code now?"

"I am. So is my partner. They love it! Follow me please. I'll sort out payment for your upgrade." 'Free upgrade on me.'

"Thanks. Come on buns." 'Mum, choker still working?'

'Yes?'

'Do you and Michael fancy an upgrade to first?'

~~~

By the time they eventually got the warning they'd land in twenty minutes Laura was a little tipsy on the free champagne. "This is _wayyy_ better."

"You're not wrong there Laura. Mattie, want some more?"

"I'm good thanks Bunny. Mum, you should stop drinking if you want to hold Molly when we get home."

"Hmm. I'll let Michael do the holding today. Only having three spare seats up here.. Michael looked a bit annoyed."

"You did offer to return to cattle class. The annoyance was probably aimed more at the cabin crew for not checking spare seat numbers first."

~~~

[Chapter-24](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-24-1)


	24. Chapter 24

Miles from the estate Sophie points. "Mattie! Look!"

"Teeny? What is.. Oh My God! Is that Bunship One? Leo! Look!"

In the distance a multiple cell balloon hung in the air over the estate.

"How.. we left them a week and they've already built the first prototype? How?"

Danny pulls a guilty face, "Um.. our wedding present to you both. From Emily and me."

Mattie slides along the bench seat and turns sideways. "That doesn't explain the how?"

"Salmon wanted my help with a few things. You'll meet a lake synth now calling himself Luigi."

"Frigging hell! You forked _again_?"

"I gave him permission to load my backup into a Hubert."

"Emily? Did you know about this?"

"Sure Babes. Danny asked my permission first. He'll shut down when he's done."

Ruby gives her a funny look. "End his life?"

"End the fork. It's not ending his life."

"But each time you fork you're creating a new life surely? Wouldn't it be better for him to go and set up a HECLS office somewhere else?"

"Such as?"

"How about Japan? There's synths out there."

Danny nods, "The land of Nintendo. I hadn't thought about that. It would be rather cool. I'll mention it to him."

"Don't you consider him you?"

"No. He's a fork. Just as Michael, Miami or Sandra aren't Mia. Close in many ways mentally but not identical."

"I suppose I'll understand your point of view in a few days."

"Why a few?"

"My new body takes three days to build doesn't it?"

"Oh. Yeah. That." He can't help but grin.

"Danny?"

"Ruby?"

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Spoilers."

"OH MY GOD! It's ready?"

"I didn't say that."

"But it is isn't it?"

"Maybe." His grin grows.

Ruby turns to her daughter Sam, visibly shaking with excitement. "Are you ready for this?"

"If you are. I wouldn't do it without you. That Max Tegmark quite liked you.."

"I'm spoken for, twice already. And he's got a wife."

"I wasn't going to suggest anything like that. I just think he'd be interested to hear your thoughts on becoming Human 3.0. A first flesh and bone female to do it voluntarily, not through an accident. And one that's worn Neural Lace for ages."

"Of course. Fancy flying back to America later?"

"Later when?"

"Today?"

"Christ you're keen."

"I want to hear more of what he has to say too."

"If you're paying, sure. What about John?"

"Cooper and Luke can come along. Your man too if he's still chilled out and not pretending to be something he's not."

"He's probably back to his old grime self."

"In which case he can stay in London."

"Okay."

Mattie turns back to face front. "So Tina, what do you think of the assistant job so far? Want to keep it?"

"I love it! Please."

"Good."

They all watch in silence as they get nearer and nearer to the estate, the true size of Bunship One becoming more apparent.

~~~

Turning into the final road to the estate Sophie is the first to comment on something they'd all been thinking about. "It's got to be anchored to the lake bed hasn't it?"

Danny nods, "So we can test the air locks and space suits are good. If any water gets in air can get out."

"What's the ribbon made from?"

"Woven carbon fibre."

"So strong."

"Extremely. And light."

Tina turns to track the balloon. "How high will it go Mattie?"

"To the edge of space so we can deploy a sun screen to help combat global warming."

Tina turns to face her. "One thing someone wanted backing for was BECCS. Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage. My old boss refused him the money. Apparently the man was saying he could make diamonds from thin air. Nobody believed him."

"Diamonds from air?"

"Carbon pollution. If that balloon can go above the clouds you've got unfiltered light to power solar cells and machines."

Danny turned to see her. "And if it was put into orbit, stay permanently in the sun.. it could have a drag hose to pump up bad air, another to return the cleaned air. Even if it took months to gather enough to make a single diamond it would be a cool step towards the fixing of the problems."

Sam smiles at him. "If Ruby can wear a stone as big as the one she does, imagine the PR wearing a diamond the same size would do. Especially when everyone's told it was made from their pollution. I'd call it the Angel Stone. A gift from the edge of space."

Mattie gets goose bumps as she pictures the logo Buzz Senior had described, an angel with wings out protecting Earth. "Wouldn't the cost of the machine outweigh the diamond created?"

"The first few I expect. But if it keeps going, running on free power it would pay for itself eventually."

Danny searched on his phone. "HPHT is out, no way can we carry tons of heavy machinery into space for the high temperature and pressure needed. CVD on the other hand.. maybe that's a second thing we can do? If we could license flisom.com technology.."

Mattie frowns, "Who?"

"Makers of Ultra light Next Generation PV Modules. Listen to this.. Flisom’s products are based on an innovative thin film solar technology developed in Switzerland. High efficiency, flexible solar panels, ultra light weight and unique product features open a completely new dimension in solar energy. Smart technology. For smart applications. And smart people. That's us. If we can perforate them then they can be sun screen _and_ power supply."

"How heavy compared to the film at Uni?"

"Probably thousands of times heavier. So maybe we start with film, phase it out for panels?"

Mattie taps Tina on the shoulder, "Here's a first PA job for you. flisom.com, see if you can arrange for their CEO and an engineer to come and see us with a few samples. Tell them we're interested in a large scale partnership with them."

"Okay Mattie."

Their minibus taxi turns into the estate. "Frigging hell that makes the coach load look small! Battle stations everyone! I want them all gone as soon as possible. I'm not waking Molly up with a crowd like that about! No way."

Emily looks out of the rear window wondering what had caused a shadow, "It'll get worse before it gets better. If half of HECLS is in the taxi van in front, the other half in here, who's behind us?"

They all turn to see a convoy of cars and vans indicating to turn into the drive.

"Frig. More visitors."

Cindy's eyes widen. "Flash, Rose, we'll need your help!"

Max puts up a hand, "I can help with dip dyes."

Mattie's jaw snaps back up from doing a fish impression. "Thanks guys. Poppy? Would you mind having a twin? It's all the rage."

"If David doesn't mind?"

David looks panicked. "Um.." 'Thank you Mattie! What if I can't cope with two? She's a very demanding woman!'

'We'll ensure you can.'

He shrugs, keeps eye contact with Mattie, "It would be fine with me dear." 'I pray you're right.'

Poppy rubs his leg. "Thank you, let's do it."

Toby undoes his seatbelt, "I'll get them sorted into different groups if they're not already."

Danny does the same, "I just spoke to Luigi, he's had Alfie running flat out milling more food processor units. He can't keep up with demand. Princess, can you make sure the web site says to book appointments? Every possible page?"

"Sure Babes, the designs are done, just need copying in place."

Mattie looks forwards again, "It looks like James Two and Three have been creative with bouncy castle material."

Two ropes ran from two thirds up the building, across the driveway and down to the lawn either side of the steps via two tall posts sunk into the ground. Between them was a patchwork of red, yellow and blue plastic covered material. A rain shield.

"Dan, if the vault is good can we move the workshop down there?"

"We've got power, no data unless I move the old switch down there and run some fibre to link it up." He opens the sliding door to jump out. "It would take a while. Need the space for something Mats?"

"We need more space to work on people."

"The living room's carpeted, kitchen also a no, the garage's full of the Medusa build machine, the workshop floor could do with a new layer of sealant. How about bedrooms?"

"Even better carpets!"

"The bathrooms?"

"For the hair dyes, sure. We should make home hair dye kits for synths. So bedrooms for piercings, bathrooms for dyes, stress to all visitors we're only using the rooms to cope with the surge in demand."

With that Danny and Toby bail out and run.

~~~

[Chapter-25](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-25-1)


	25. Chapter 25

Mattie thought there were a lot of people outside. She got a shock when she got to the front doors, the hallway was ram packed. The living room doors were held open, she squeezed through the crowd and found the room full too. 'Ems, fan-bloody-tastic. That viral advertising came back to bite us big time Princess!'

'We'll cope! I'll get Poppy to train me up on piercings as soon as we've got all the cases in and I've changed into something more professional looking.'

Mattie looked at the collection of people, multicasts to the extended HECLS family. 'Um.. guys? Have you noticed the mix of people we've got?'

Mia hauled some cases into the hallway. "Excuse me please!" 'Mattie?'

'There's flesh and bone, breathing type humans in here.'

'Why?'

'Search me. Toby? Anyone said anything?'

'Not yet. Let me ask some.'

'It can't be for mods, maybe they're being chaperones, be tactful.' Mattie wanders around the living room looking at all the faces. There were a few youngsters with parents.

James Three comes clunking into the room, moving fast and shoving people out of the way. 'We've got another one!'

Mattie weaves her way through the crowd, 'Another what?'

'Of the We Hate Change brigade. Better known as We Are People.' He grabs the man's shoulder. "You're coming with me pal!"

The man cries out in pain. "Ow! Let go! I've not done anything wrong!"

"Explain your text message then."

Everyone in the room turned to look.

The man winces, "In private."

"No."

Mattie puts hands on hips. "What happened to innocent until proven guilty James? Sorry sir, tell me why you're here."

"Not here."

'James, I've got an idea. Ask David to get Sam and Ruby into their new bodies PDQ then ask them to join us. They _must_ be running the chameleon code at all times.'

'Okay boss.'

Outside Emily crawls into the van a bit further, grabs another couple of cases and slides one to Mia, another to Fred. 'Matilla Babes?'

'Good cops bad cops. Maybe someone overheard the conversation with Max in America? Why else would a bunch of breathers turn up? Tobs? Anyone said anything?'

'One mum's showing me her daughter's medical report. Um.. severe combined immunodeficiency? Looking it up.. also known as alymphocytosis or _boy in a bubble_ disease. Shit! Sounds nasty! The reverse of my hospital visit?'

'Is she wearing a mask?'

'Yeah, it looks someone's glued it to her face.'

'Glued?'

'Latex glue I think. Give me a sec, I'll get them up to one of the bedrooms for a chat in private. She's got to be here for a new body, no other reason to be here surely?'

'Agreed. David? Are you online yet?'

'Yes Mattie, just securing a new backup for Sam, compiling Ruby's Neural Lace stream into a new root code and fact store.'

'How long before they're up and walking?'

'Ten more minutes maybe?'

Mattie sighed. 'Okay gang, how do we keep a potential hostile busy for ten without James crushing bones?'

'James said another Mats. How many have there been James and where are they?'

James Three turns to look towards the doors, 'Six so far Toby, Mitch has instructions not to let the lift to the basement, they're in the vault, Two is guarding the shaft end of the room.'

'Mate, I hope they're not touching Radiant.'

'There's a wooden box over the asteroid, they can't see her.'

Red pushes her way into the room, code running, hair pulled back tight into a bun, very different clothes on. "I still can't find someone. Who do I need to kill around here to get a cup of coffee? I'm going to get the shakes if I don't get some caffeine soon." She looks around for somewhere to sit and huffs, sits on a sofa armrest. "And what sort of waiting room has so few chairs?"

Mattie raises an eyebrow at her. "Our living room. We didn't design it to deal with crowds this size."

"Maybe you should have."

"It's our _home_."

"Your home? You actually _live_ here?"

"My family does. Why are you here?"

"I.. it's not something I'd want to discuss around others."

"Well unless you're after a new body I can't see why you'd bother coming here. Unless you're here with a synth. Are you?"

"I'm here with a friend. I'd like to speak with the manager."

"Toby's busy."

"Then the person in charge of this chaos."

"Chaos? That's rich given that people are supposed to make appointments. In charge? That would be me then. Mattie Elster Hawkins, HECLS CEO."

Red watches the man's face. 'He knows who you are, not sure how he felt about it.'

He shifts, "A human three. In charge. Hmm."

Mattie shifts in her chair, wasn't sure if there was sarcasm in his voice or not, "Is that a problem?"

"You're a synth."

"Now, yes, to be expected after a fatal plane crash. I wasn't born one. And you're here because?"

He feels the grip James had grow stronger. "Sod it. I'm a reporter. And I'm talking to _everyone_. WAP or not, blues and reds."

"Blues and.. red blood or blue synth fluid?"

"That's it."

'David what colour synth fluid did you use when you made me and the others?'

'Blood red.'

'Cool thanks.' "What if they had red synth fluid?"

"Then that would mess things up. I'd need a new set of names."

"How about fabs or breathers?"

"Fabs?"

"Flesh and bones."

"I've not heard that one before."

"If you're a reporter you'll have some form of ID card won't you."

"Yes."

"That was a statement not a question."

"Oh. If the giant wouldn't mind letting go for a moment?" Pressure released he fumbles for his wallet and slides out a card. "Dave Mellon, Waltringham Gazette."

"Waltringham? The synth free town? How did you know to come here?"

"Joe. Your father said I should pull my head out of my arse and get the scoop before war breaks out."

"War?"

"You've got six WAP members somewhere, lord only knows how many others are in the building or waiting outside."

Toby bumped. 'Mats, what's the lowest price we can go to for a body? The girl's a similar age to Radiant?'

'Frig. Everyone. I need you all to vote. Profiting off people's misfortunes is wrong as far as I'm concerned. Food processors, all the other mods and products we have, they can have a respectable markup. But new bodies for people that _need them_ , not just want them for vanity reasons like Ruby, we let them have them at what percentage over cost?'

~~~

[Chapter-26](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-26-1)


	26. Chapter 26

Thankfully the tickle code had attracted a lot of fun loving synths, the vast majority wanted quick and easy mods to make themselves look different to their mass produced siblings. Ears, nose or lips pierced, hair dyed, dip dyed or simple highlights was enough. With the Poppy twins, Emily, Cindy and Rose all working on piercings, Max, Fred, Blue shirt Simon working on hair the crowd size dropped.

Toby got everyone into the right groups and with a number. The steady stream of new visitors slowed the rate at which they cleared the crowd. Emily had got the website updated, many had already been traveling for hours.

Food processor mods were being done by David and Salmon, they were taking longest of all thanks to the quality control pressure tests needed to ensure no leaks were left unfixed.

~~~

Young Jennifer was up in a room with her mother, Ruby and Sam, an initial backup having been taken by Mattie and Leo. The wait for her build would be two and a half days. Despite her mother's insistence that she didn't she'd ripped off the mask and peeled the remaining latex from her face. "Mattie said you'd ordered new bodies too. Are you nervous or excited?"

Ruby looks at Sam with a grin. "You tell Jenny."

"No, you tell her."

Jennifer sneezed. "Oh dear. It's started already Mummy. Tell me what?"

Ruby and Sam exchanged looks.

"Tell me what?"

Sam smiled, "We're in them now."

"Downstairs?"

"Here. You're looking at them."

"Y.. you act so different to other synths."

"Because we remember everything we used to do in our old bodies. It's the same.. mostly."

~~~

Mattie stood arms folded, staring at the nine WAP members, James Two and Dave to her left, Red and Niska to her right. She'd interviewed the rest of the reds as Dave had nicknamed them, worked out who was a chaperone, in need of assistance themselves or a WAP member. Not even the best poker players could get away with hiding lies from her now. "What did you hope to achieve by coming here?"

The five men and four women remained silent. "As you weren't here for new bodies or assisting synth partners, were on our land and entered our property without permission I'm pretty sure that means you were trespassing."

Still the nine remain quiet.

"What do you think Nis? If we hold them long we'll be liable for kidnap charges. If we back them up and poke through their memories we could be done for invasion of privacy. I say we hand them over to Pete and let him deal with them. Now he's like us he tolerates shit heads even less."

Niska nods, goes to say something and notices one of the men at the back looking down at the floor, trying to hide a smug expression. "You in the grey hoodie, yes you. Why did you react like that?"

"Nuffin."

"Do you know who we're talking about when we say Pete?"

"Drummond." He sniggers.

The woman to his right elbows him, whispers, "Shut it Dean!"

"Said nuffin."

"You said his name you idiot."

Niska walks over to him and pulls him out of the group. "Dean, come have a chat with me. In private." 'I won't hurt him, just make the others think I have.' "You may know me from the legendary Smash Club video, the one where I cracked skulls with a metal baseball bat. It's getting a lot of likes from my synth friends these days." 'A bluff of course. Nobody would let me keep it online.'

The woman watches him go. "Don't say a thing Dean!"

"I won't Olivia."

" _You just did you fucking stupid pillock!_ Who let him into our group?"

The woman front left rolls her eyes and shakes her head, "Me. Sorry. He's good at some things, bloody useless at others."

Red walks around them, "Olivia, do you want to tell us why you came?"

"No."

"Then you're coming with me. I should warn you, I'm not as nice as Niska." She grabs the woman by the shoulder.

"Get off me!"

"A terrorist organisation walks into our home and expects to walk away as if nothing had happened?"

"We're not terrorists."

Mattie curls her mouth up at the left and wrinkles her nose. "Really? How would you describe yourselves?"

"Um.."

Mattie didn't have 4G, but she did have WiFi. 'Bunny, I'm in the vault with no phone signal, can you call Pete for me please?'

'Sure. What message shall I pass on?'

'That I need him down here urgently.'

'Okay.'

Mattie kept her eyes on the woman, "Um.. is that all you've got to say?"

"You're not the police."

"No I'm not. Which is why I've asked for a STTF friend to join us as soon as possible."

A man at the back mumbles.

"Speak up or shut up. James, let's get them split up so they can't whisper to each other."

"I'd not recommend that. It's harder to keep an eye on them."

~~~

Red turns to face the shaft end of the vault, "NISKA! HAVE YOU GOT THE NAIL GUNS WITH YOU?"

"YES?"

"BRING DEAN BACK, THE GUNS TOO."

"BUT I WAS JUST ABOUT TO HAVE SOME FUN!"

"SORRY!"

"WHY DOES EVERYONE HAVE TO RUIN THINGS!"

"I SAID SORRY!"

An angry looking Niska returns with Dean, his hands above his head. He was several steps in front, looking somewhat whiter than when he left. The motors on the nail guns were whining. "I was just about to nail him to a wall. Why do others always stop my fun?"

Red smiles, "Have some fun, in here not in the passage."

"Through the palms?"

"I was thinking through the clothes."

"Were's the fun in that?"

"With them held off the ground."

"There's no fun in that. And nails would rip through clothes easily."

"What if we put strips of wood over first?"

"That would work, it still wouldn't be much fun."

At the far end of the other passage the lift bings.

'Matilla Babes, did you ever watch the Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy?'

'Emily?'

'I'm coming into the vault. I was just having a chuckle about how we're dressed.'

'Why?'

'I'm in a business skirt and jacket, Pete.. you'll see in a sec.'

'Not the Karma Bitch outfit?'

'No Babes, a different colour, inspired by it though.'

Mattie smiled as her friends came into view. 'You look very smart. How's Arthur Dent?'

'You got it Babes!'

'Why is Pete in a dressing gown and PJs?'

'He's just stepped out of a build machine. Officially he had another half hour of cure time but David says he'd allowed a good margin.'

'What the frig? Why?'

'Maybe this lot know?'

"Hello shit heads!"

The group turn to see Pete.

Dean had already seen him and started shaking. "That's not possible!"

"I was upstairs having a rest, got woken up by Emily, told there was a problem down here?"

Mattie keeps her expression locked, 'Hi Pete. Do you know what happened?'

'The last thing I recall is having a backup taken in the workshop, then stepping out of the build machine. British built again.' He puts a finger to his nose as if to adjust his glasses, rubs it. "So what are you lot doing here? And why's he pissed himself?"

Mattie turns to see Dean, a large wet patch on his trousers. "Eww, Dean, do you mind?"

Pete walks around the group, they all stare at his borrowed slippers, PJ and dressing gown. "Someone's going to talk. I'll make sure of that."

Red shoves Olivia, "To the wall. Now."

"Get off me."

"As soon as I've nailed you to a wall." She finds a scrap of wood from when asteroid Radiant was hastily covered up. "Nail gun please Nis."

Niska hands one of the two over. "Palms are much better."

"I know. I'm tempted, but we can't sink to their level." She shoves Olivia again. "I'm not asking you a third time, _move!_ "

"Fuck you."

"Curl your toes in or lose one." Red drops fast and fires a nail through the front of the woman's shoe.

"You bitch!"

"You come to _our house_ and behave like this? And you say you're not terrorists. What the fuck are you?"

Dean looks nervously at the nail gun being waved at him. "Soldiers."

Mattie steps fast, gets right in his face, "Soldiers?"

"We're going to take back what's ours."

Olivia snarls, "What part of don't say a thing don't you understand?"

Pete grabs Dean by the jacket collar, "It's clear you'll be the one to blab. I'll take him upstairs Mattie. The others.. I'll phone Tabs, get a meat wagon sent over." He stops and laughs. "That's so appropriate. We should come up with a synth equivalent though. Not all synths are good, there's rotten apples on both sides."

~~~

[Chapter-27](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-27-1)


	27. Chapter 27

Dean frowned as Pete made him a coffee in the kitchen. "I thought you were going to ruff me up."

"No need for that. I'm a detective. I detect. And right now I detect you're as nervous as hell and close to having a heart attack. Sit down and calm down."

"If you're playing good cop.."

"Sit!"

"Okay!"

"What did you hope to gain from coming here?"

"Intelligence."

"On what it's like to be next gen human? You could have just asked me, I'd have told you. No aches and pains, a clear head every day. Stronger in many ways. David Elster didn't make synths for synths. He made them as a way to save mankind."

"No.."

"Do yourself a favour, shut up and listen. Mia, Niska, Fred, Max, they were just the test pilots. How could you expect to put a human mind in a new body without knowing the body was good?"

"You've been drinking the Kool-Aid. Why make millions of synths and wake them up if.."

"You don't listen do you. Shush. That last bit wasn't supposed to happen.."

"If Hobb starting the awakening wasn't the plan what was?"

If anyone had drunk in the lies it was this guy. Mattie started the awakening. Thankfully the truth remained hidden. "Shut it and listen. Humans get used to synths being about for years, the idea of strong bodies, fast minds, no illness or disease. Sure there were mechanical issues for some. These days all fixable. Consciousness transference gets time to be perfected and one day people accept the idea of having a new body for themselves."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"Believe what you want. Think about it. If there were no synths. Not a single one. Then you have a major accident, one you'll die from in hours. A doctor appears, says _Hi, I've got a new body for you. Looks the same, feels the same, inside it's more like a robot, stronger, faster, better than that broken bag of bones you're in now_ , what would you think? More _importantly_ , what would everyone else think if you agreed to it?"

"Um.. they'd freak out?"

"Bingo! You'd be taken to bits and studied. Too new, too different. People like change to happen slowly, creep up on them." Pete takes a mug and spoons in a load of sugar, a single spoon of coffee and adds water. "Getting a load of dumb dollies out was to get people more relaxed about what would come next."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Lots of conversations with David Elster. People that lie make mistakes, things don't cross reference properly. He's not giving me any BS. You said intelligence. What sort?"

Dean keeps quiet.

Pete sighs, "I may be in a synth body now but I'm still human. If you don't talk I'll have to take you down to the station, hold you until you do."

"On how to bring HECLS and STTF down."

Pete was momentarily stunned. Why volunteer that so readily. "Why?"

"Synths are stealing our jobs."

"No more than they were before. Did one of the others put that idea in your head?"

"She.. no."

"She who?"

"Can't say.."

"Then I'll have to throw you in with the others, I'll say something like how well you'll spilled the beans on her, we'll know from her reaction who she is."

"Shit. If I talk will you let me go?"

"That depends on what you've done."

"It was all Kate's idea!"

"What was?"

"Setting the trap for you."

"What trap?"

"The fake Portacabin offices."

"What?"

"Two of those portable site office things. Only the lower one was just the four sides around a car crusher. The top one had a trap door down into it."

"You crushed my old body? Is that why I'm here in this new one?"

"It wasn't me! I just had to modify the cabin. Kate didn't say what for at first. And I didn't know it was for you until after. Honest! I didn't know."

"Heard of aiding and abetting?"

"Yeah?"

"That's what you did. You had the power to stop what was happening but didn't." Pete send a still of the man's face to the national database. With the man's first name a match was almost instant. "Dean Emery, I am arresting you for assisting the murder of Peter Drummond. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?"

"But you're here."

"You didn't know the outcome when you committed the crime. A new body like this isn't free. And my last backup was five days ago. That's five days you've stolen from me that I have no memory of, five days that could have long lasting ramifications. On your feet."

"But I didn't set the trap!"

"No, by your own admission you made it. Tough. Get up."

"Oh mannn."

"It's an age old saying, I'm sure you'll have heard it. If you can't do the time.."

"Don't do the crime. I know. Back inside again. Shit."

~~~

[Chapter-28](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-28-1)


	28. Chapter 28

Back upstairs Mattie shows reporter Dave the outside of the Medusa build machine. "This is where the good stuff happens, if saving a flesh and bone body is no longer a possibility. It's a last resort option. I'll be back here in a bit, there's others waiting to wake up. But I can't show you that I'm afraid, it's a very private thing."

"I'd only see it if I came back as a synth?"

"If you worked for HECLS. Or had a partner coming back in a new body. Partner by marriage not business."

"Sure. How much are you charging?"

"That depends."

"On what?"

"On it being for urgent medical needs or vanity."

"Life or death needs?"

"That sort of thing."

"What else can you show me?"

"One of the rooms patients would recover in? We're not a major hospital, more a super niche one for surgery many others wouldn't dare risk."

"Like fitting synth legs on the prince?"

"That sort of thing. Fred's a bit creative when it comes to solutions."

"Okay, lead the way."

Mattie motioned for him to head to the doors. 'Mitch, unlock the doors please. And don't let this guy anywhere without me okay?'

'Understood Mattie. Don't you trust him?'

'Not totally. Trust needs to be earned. We need to see what he writes.'

As they head to the stairs Dave gets a dictaphone out, checks it's still running. "Mind if I ask a few personal questions?"

"Ask away. My answering will depend on the nature of the question."

"Okay. Sex. Still good?"

"Fantastic."

"Glad to hear it. Eating?"

"Really enjoyable. No food bags with the food processor mod. Built in with our new HECLS body, an upgrade for older synths. And yes we go to the toilet like any other human."

"Do you think the same way?"

"Mostly. How it's stored is different, it has to be. But all the usual things like what shall I wear today, what shall I have for breakfast, stuff like that's the same. Things like where'd I put my keys, phone or bus pass, that's a thing of the past."

"Because of fast recall?"

"And not forgetting."

"How was it when you woke up in the new body?"

"Um.. Horrible. Frightening. I wasn't prepared for it, having died on the flight that crashed. Thankfully we were all in the arc."

"Oh. I'm not sure how I'd write that."

"Write it honestly. Ruby and Sam are the first ladies to voluntarily upgrade, had no problems with it. Although that's possibly because they did a try and buy first."

"A what?"

"They woke up in a loaner body while still fine in their fab ones, were able to give themselves feedback."

"That sounds like a right brain twister."

"Yeah. You have to be in the right mindset to do that, know that you're going to go to sleep and wake in the proper body some time later."

"Is that something I could experience?"

"If you're brave enough." Mattie opens a door. 'Thanks Mitch.' "These are the slightly smaller rooms for patients and guests, family get bigger ones."

"Brave?"

"It's a bit of a leap."

"Lovely rooms. You don't think I'd cope?"

Mattie leans against the doorway, folds arms, "I don't know. To date most conversions have been due to the sudden death of the original body. We've had one man and two women do it as a conscious decision. Strike that. I should be counting David. Two of each. But he was before HECLS existed. Even then it's not exactly a good sample size is it?"

"I suppose not. What else can you show me?"

"The medical room's still in use. The workshop's off limits to everyone but family. You've seen what will become the wine vault. Um.. the kitchen, not much to show, it's a standard kitchen just with multiple ovens. Would you like to see the roof garden?"

~~~

Pete closes the inner cage door of the large police van, the nine WAP members squashed up inside. "Enjoy your trip."

Dean grins, "We will."

The outer doors are slammed shut.

Dean's grin fades. "Hardly RSC standard work but it'll do. All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts."

Olivia sighs, "Do be quiet Dean."

~~~

Mattie strolls around the roof garden. "Mia and Toby made this. Every planter is sized to an exact multiple of the smallest one, they can move things around to reconfigure it for open events, put it back to give private little spaces for patients and guests to relax in."

"It's lovely."

Mattie stops for a moment and frowns. "What's your angle for the article in the paper?"

"How humans can escape the bodies we were born into, live without illness, ageing, things like that."

"Want to experience it? Obviously your synth copy would need to write some paragraphs fast, you'd only be in the loaner for minutes."

"I suppose it would give me the full picture, it's always better to write from experience."

'Leo, can you bring the backup device up to the garden please? And have Fred join us with pain killers and strong sedatives.'

~~~

Pete was about to open the door to HECLS House and stops at the sound of a car horn. Turning to see he gets a wave from an excited Sam leaning out of the passenger window.

Karen doesn't bother parking properly, yanks the handbrake up and is opening the door fast. Tears of joy ran down her face. "Pete!"

He walks towards her as she runs, her tears flowing. "Hello Kay, you can't keep a good man down."

She throws arms around him and kisses him over and over.

Sam wraps arms around the two. "We were worried."

Pete ruffles Sam's hair. "I've lost the days between backup and now, have I missed much?"

Sam nods, "Lots."

"If your backups are old we get a new one today okay?"

His son nods again.

"Good. I've got something I need to do, come inside." He takes Karen's hand. "Did you get to see the damage done?"

Karen nods, starts looking upset.

"How old's your backup? Anything you can't afford to forget? You could restore from the backup."

"I need to remember. I'm going to make sure they spend time inside for what they've done, assuming we find them."

"Already have love. They were here trying to do the next bit. They're not as smart as they think they are."

Karen and Sam follow him inside, enter the living room.

Mattie beams, "Sam! You're looking very smart. Hi Karen, what do you think of the improved Pete?"

"Improved?"

"Latest and greatest body."

"He looks as he did before."

"Good. What's the plan Pete?"

Pete steps around the almost unconscious reporter. "We put him in a body. A broken one from the Miaz site. We place some of Niska's weapons in his hands before we wake them both up, ask him to finish what he started."

"Eh?"

"My money's on him being WAP. A plant. I'm betting they wanted us to think we'd got all the bad guys. I'd stuck one of Danny's gizmos under a seat, heard Dean talk. It was an act. If we look through this guy's backup I'm sure we'll find their plans."

"Shit."

~~~

[Chapter-29](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-29-1)


	29. Chapter 29

Just over half an hour later Mattie sits back on the sofa, looks at the group that had formed. "Whoa that was difficult. We'll wake him up. But in a good body."

Leo frowns, "Weapons?"

"None."

Pete looks shocked. "Why? He's WAP, my gut feeling's not wrong is it?"

"He's WAP alright. And yes some of it was an act. But he's a double agent. He's really working for The Guardian, looking to do a massive piece on WAP, synth free towns, the hypocrisy."

"Hypocrisy?"

"The rubbish collection for example. It's picked up by humans in the streets, the dustcarts are driven to a site at the edge of town, the human crew get out and a synth crew take over for the rest of the drive to landfill. The council know all about it, put it in place for cost savings. And that's just one example. There's loads more."

Niska playfully spins her new baseball bat around her hand like a pen around a finger. "So it's all a sham?"

"Yup. On the surface it looks synth free. But underneath it all they depend on synth labour just like everyone else."

Pete shakes his head. "Bastards. So what's his role?"

"He's not ringleader. He didn't have anything to do with the attack on you either. They asked him to get to know where everything is, how to come back and attack us later."

"And he agreed?"

"Yes. A lie."

Leo sits forwards and rubs his chin, "You're sure you can trust him?"

"I've practically _been him_ Bunny I've examined his memories so deeply. This remains between us right? If he finds out we've poked through his head like this he'll have a field day."

Karen rubs hands on her knees. "Maybe we should tell him what we've done. Having an insider in WAP on our side could be very useful."

Sam sits upright. "Would you like to know what I think?"

"Yes dear?"

"We copy him into a good body and wake the copy up, keep the original asleep. We tell the copy what we've done. If the copy accepts it as a good thing we tell the original. If he's angry about it we don't, we wake the copy up a second time from a fresh restore."

Pete nods, "Sam my boy, that's worth a large bag of chips!"

"With _lots_ of salt and vinegar?"

"As much as you'd like."

"Thanks!"

Pete smiles at Karen, 'He's a chip off the old block for sure.'

Mattie stands, "I've got something I'd like to do in a bit, can we get this done? What's the best body we have at hand?"

Leo gets up, "I've asked Dad. There's a Howard he can have."

Emily looks at Danny. "We should fit a food bag, give him a small meal."

"Or we get a small sampler together? Let him try all sorts?"

Mattie looks between the ladies in the room. "One of his first questions.."

Niska had turned to see her as the question was started. "Let me guess. Sex?"

"Yes."

"Is he married?"

"No."

"Dating?"

"Not at the moment."

"Gay?"

"Attracted to women."

"I'll fork. But only temporarily. Wake us up in bed and run from the room."

Astrid looks anxious.

"I've got the most experience. If anyone else wants to volunteer? No? Strange that."

~~~

Dave wakes in a dark room to feel arms and legs wrapped around him, a body grinding against him.

Lips kissed his. 'Mattie said sex was high on your list of questions Dave. Don't try to talk, think your answer back to me.'

'I thought your sharing over WiFi would be pure data.'

'It can be, if needed for speed. But languages are beautiful are they not?'

'They are. My love of English is why I eventually got into journalism. Who are you?'

'Who'd you like me to be?'

'I'd like you to be you.'

'In which case I'm Candy. Lover of the good guys.'

'Hello Candy. What do you mean good guys?'

'We know you're a double agent.' Niska feels his hands moving, sliding down to her bottom. He grabs her cheeks and shifts a little. 'We've got some food set out for you downstairs, a small sample of everything to hand. Emily's going to sing and dance to entertain you, you'll see that life in a synth body can be as rich as your original, if not better. I want you.' She slides a hand down and grabs his member, guides it in. 'How does that feel?'

'Just like the real thing.'

'Then fuck me like you mean it.'

~~~

Mattie sat on the top step and played with her phone. "Ems, do you think they'll be long?"

"No idea Babes. If he had good control as a human it could go on for ages."

"Do you think she's enjoying it?"

"No idea. I almost volunteered, thought it best not to upset Dan."

"Why? I mean why almost volunteered?"

"We shouldn't expect Niska to do this sort of thing. That's unfair."

Mattie nodded, "True."

"What are you doing after this?"

"Seeing asteroid Radiant. There's something I want to try before I wake up Molly."

"What's that?"

"Sam has some ideas to help prove if it's a dream or not."

"Your alternate reality thing?"

"Yeah. I've got a few ideas of my own. If it's a thing.. why me? Can others do it? If so how?"

"I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking this could be massive if true." Emily gives her friend a smile of mixed emotions.

"What's freaking me out a little Ems.. if I can jump into the body of another me in another world for a bit, what happens to the original mind?"

"Maybe they take a back seat? Like Mia and Anita? Or maybe they can take the backseat and.."

"Whoa! Hadn't thought of that possibility! So I should try talking to myself.. Holy crap!"

"What?"

"Ems! The voice in my head! That ghostly _Hello_ I used to get sounding like that Adele advert. Maybe it was me from another world trying to have a conversation!"

"Fuck me. You think that's possible?"

"If I got a big strap on.."

"That's not what I meant!"

"I know, just messing with you. If I can jump, who says others can't? The hypnotism thing being done on me instead of Ruby may have got my mind more open. Then other world me steps in, leaves a massive message about a possible future. Fuck. Niska's got things under control I'm sure, I'm getting the others and heading for the vault."

~~~

[Chapter-30](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-30-1)


	30. Chapter 30

Mattie paced as James Two and Three uncovered the asteroid. "Another gut feeling. This isn't the only thing that can trigger it. Somehow it does, but there are other ways."

Leo lifts her top and plugs a cable into her hip. "Danny, if the old switch is here, what stops anyone from walking down the shaft into the vault and connecting to our network when we're not about?"

"Dozer's on the case. He's welding up a massive dome shaped cage to go at the top of the shaft. It'll be concreted in so can't be removed easily. I'll add vibration detectors so we get an alarm if anyone tries to cut through it."

"What about a thermal lance? Like the one's people use to rob banks?"

"Ok. Heat too. Detected on cage and via a thermal camera below."

"When's it being installed?"

"Maybe tomorrow? Until then we have an iron gate on the tunnel entrance. Our spinning wrecking ball power protector isn't protected until the dome is in."

Two puts down his end of the box. "We'll be guarding it Mattie, don't worry. We're not letting anyone ruin our hard work."

"Just thinking my PWHB thoughts, will this cage dome have open areas you could stick a hand through?"

Danny nods, "We do plan for the worst, hope for the best too Mattie, it’s a cage design you couldn’t get a body through. A hand yes.”

"Can he weld some heavy duty mesh on the inside then?"

"Why?"

"What if someone dropped a grenade or two through?"

"Oh. Shit. Okay. Perforated steel plates then. You think it might get that bad?"

"Nine WAP members visiting and Pete put in a car crusher? God knows what they'll try."

“Hell. If we have holes they could pour petrol through and drop something to ignite it.”

“I hope they don’t go that far, but I’d not rule it out. They fight dirty.”

"In which case we'll beef up the passage doors too, have multiple doors so any explosion doesn't get straight through to the vault. We'll keep the original NASA1, two and three upstairs, have four to six down here."

"Four to six?"

"While you had a week partying some of us were busy building."

"Oh. Sorry."

"No need to be sorry, there's a load you need to catch up on still."

James Two reconnects the power drive for the turntable below the small asteroid. It was small in comparison to the part exposed pair in the passage to the shaft, quite massive in comparison to asteroids in museums. "Ready Boss."

Leo had started the backup code as soon as Mattie was hard wired to the LAN, watches it confirm how much time was needed to compleat things. "A few more seconds. What's the first test you'll run?"

Mattie pulls and envelope from her top. "Something Sam wants me to do." It's ripped open. "Oh. Run."

"Run what?"

"Run. With my legs. If there's a suitable open space or building with corridors."

"How will that help Angel?"

"I have no idea Bunny. Her note doesn't say anything more than that."

"Okay. The backup is done. Spin her up guys."

Two picked up the speed control. It had been upgraded while the others were in America, was now more robust. "Here goes."

Mattie watched the asteroid slowly pick up speed. Like the wrecking ball they'd painted to look like BB8 it too sat on a rotary base powered by Danny's offset coils design. The same design that got the bike prototype up to record breaking speeds. "Still here, crank it up."

James does as asked.

"If we take ages to get it up to.."

Snap.

~~~

Mattie was now in her old bedroom, Leo below her. She was about to have an orgasm. Parents walking in to find you snogging would be bad enough! "Oh my God!"

Leo grabbed her hips and kept the rhythm going. "Don't hold back."

"I'm going to.."

"Go on."

Mattie shudders as she climaxes. "Whoa. Mr Elster Hawkins.. you hit the spot there Bunny!"

Leo's eyebrows almost form a monobrow. "What did you just call me?"

"Mr Elster Hawkins?"

"You want to marry me?"

"Yeah.. _I do_."

Leo chuckles, "I better get a job and start saving for a ring then. And the Bunny bit?"

Mattie fought the urge to say Um. "Who needs a Rampant Rabbit when they've got you. Pass me my phone."

Leo shook his head as if hearing things. "Did you just ask for your phone?"

"Yup." Mattie kept her hips moving, "Quick!"

Leo twisted awkwardly and grabbed it. "Isn't phone sex supposed to be when people text each other messages?"

"Haha. I'm not texting."

"What are you doing then?"

"Saving a bit of data." She takes the phone and goes to Contacts, creates a new one. AAA MATTIE 0001. She taps some notes in as fast as possible. Next the camera app is opened. "Smile!"

"Are you kinky in ways I didn't know?"

"No, the kinky one's Emily."

"Who?"

"A uni friend."

"Uni? You said you couldn't get into uni because you got a C, D and E?"

"Shit. Quick spot quiz. First thoughts when I say Cindy Elster, Hester, Mia."

"No idea who the first two are. And you mean Anita?"

"No Mia."

"We couldn't recover Mia."

She gets off him. "Where's my Slate?"

"Downstairs."

Mattie races to the door, "Bring my dressing gown!"

"You're naked!"

Mattie was already out of the room and racing down the stairs.

A very shocked Joe spills coffee. "Mats?"

"Hi Dad! Where's my Slate?"

"On the shelf under the coffee table. Have you lost your mind?"

"Lost? No, just borrowing another. You could say I'm doing volunteering to help out a family."

"Who's?"

"Yours. Have you fucked Anita?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You heard. Have you?"

"No."

"That better be the truth, Mia will be telling Mum if you did."

Joe frowns hard.

"What?"

"I'll tell you when you've done whatever it is you're in a mad rush to do."

Mattie gets the Slate and goes to log in. Password? "Do you know my password?"

"No."

Leo appears in jeans and jumper, hands her the dressing gown. "Capital M, at, t,t, one e."

"Thanks."

Dressing gown thrown on she starts a Word doc and types fast.

Joe goes to the kitchen and gets paper towel, returns to mop up his spilt coffee. "I need to collect Soph in a minute."

"Where is she?"

"Holiday dance classes."

"Cool. Anita and Nis?"

"Anita's out shopping, Niska's seeing George."

This timeline was different then. "Fred and Max?"

Leo sits, doesn't look up from the floor.

"Leo?"

"Max didn't recover from his falling into the river. Fred's still missing."

Tears start to roll, with tears in her eyes she found it harder to focus on the screen. She stops typing and wipes them. She had a task she wanted to complete. Needed to complete. "Do you still have his body?"

"Yes."

"You need to find Fred and Karen."

"Who?"

"DI Karen Voss."

"Why her?"

"It'll all be in my notes." Mattie resumes typing, fingers moving as fast as they'd go. "Any chance of a coffee Dad?"

"Sure."

"Why aren't you at work?"

"Are you okay?"

"Me? Fine, why?"

"You're not exactly with it Mats."

"I'm not exactly myself. Have a read of this when I'm done." She felt elated at what she was doing, crushed that Max needed the tree of life. She pushed herself harder, types even faster. "In a while I might appear to zone out, ask what just happened. Read this together."

Leo watches words appear at over two hundred a minute. "Where'd you learn to type so fast?"

"Uni. Coding at HECLS. That coffee Dad?"

"Coffee, right."

Leo watches Joe step away, whispers. "Who are you?"

"You've worked it out? I'm Mattie. Just not the one you know. Read this in a few minutes, I've still got a lot to type. If I was a synth I'd be able to dump it out of my head in milliseconds over WiFi. I know I'm not a synth here, I can't do any of the tricks I can do in my new body."

Leo moved to sit on the floor on the other side of the coffee table. "You're a synth?"

"We all died, accept Mum. Everyone was backed up with David's technology, had new bodies built."

"Dad? He's alive?"

"In my world. He'd hidden out in a Cindy for years."

"Which is why you asked if Cindy Elster rang any bells?"

"Yup." Mattie felt cramp building in her hands. "Dad! Water with a couple of spoons of salt please!"

Leo smiles, "Do you know how his thing works?"

"All going into the notes. Stop the questions for a moment please Bunny."

"If you call me Bunny what do I call you?"

"Angel."

"Haha. I like that. Angel."

Mattie makes fists and stretches fingers a few times. "Dad!"

"Coming!" Joe returns with a tray. "Coffee and water, sugar and salt."

"Thanks." Mattie spoons salt into the water, "Can you give that a good stir please Bunny?"

"Sure Angel."

Sugar spooned into the coffee she gives it a fast stir, "No milk?"

"You drink it black."

"Since when?"

"Forever."

Mattie chuckles, "Yuck. Another thing to note then." She puts a hand out for the salt water. "That'll do." It's taken and downed fast. "Cutting too much salt out of a diet causes cramps. She should know that from all the hockey playing."

Joe looks confused. "Hockey? Who's _she?_ "

Leo smiles softly. "Joe, this isn't Mattie. Not the one we know. She's been possessed. By an angel."

Mattie sniggers and gives him a raised eyebrow, "With a slipped halo. How hot's that coffee?"

"Very."

"Can you add some cold milk please?"

Joe steps away, "I'll bring the bottle."

Mattie typed faster still, pushed through the pain. "Thanks."

Leo crosses his legs and wraps his arms around his knees. "What's the best thing about where you've come from?"

"Um.."

Snap.

~~~

[Chapter-31](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-31-1)


	31. Chapter 31

"FUCK!" She recognised this place. The smart office high up at what she suspected was the top of a very tall building. She was sat at the desk in her business suit and blouse, could see a mass of well conditioned curls either side of her chest.

A wet Danny steps through a door with a towel around his waist. "The shower's fixed. You okay?"

"Um.."

Snap.

~~~

"Shit!"

Each of the realities she'd jumped into was slightly offset in someway development wise. From the memory of the time in the vault, the tiny clock in the lower right hand corner of the Slate, the desk clock in the office, the watch on her wrist, she knew time was a constant, progressing at the same rate everywhere. Dreams didn't do that. Did they?

She looks at what she was wearing, tracksuit bottoms, trainers and a t-shirt under unbuttoned black and red plaid shirt. Good for running in. She didn't recognise the room. There were two doors. The closest turned out to be for a small on-suite shower and toilet. It wasn't the sort of quality you'd get at home. Student digs? The other door is opened to reveal a C label on the corridor side. Someone had scratched unt to the right of the screen printed letter. "Hello?"

No answer came.

The doors all had electronic locks like hotels. Back inside the room she checks around the desk, finds a key card and a letter. It was about student rent payments. Uni digs in Nottingham? Shit. Miles from home! She puts the letter back where she'd found it and heads out for a run. Sam had something in mind with her suggestion, she had no idea what.

More doors checked she finds a shared kitchen, another student sat reading. "I'm off for a run."

"Do whatever you want bitch."

"Bitch?"

"I'm sorry, did I call you by the wrong name? Bitch or Cunt. Equally bad as each other."

"Did someone scratch the door sign recently?"

"Yeah. Just like you stole Emily's boyfriend recently."

"I did _what?_ "

"Been on the weed again? You should give that shit up, it's rotting your brain."

"Yeah.. maybe I should."

She hurries back to the room, looks for a phone. An old iPhone4 sat by her bedside charging with a small PostIt stuck to the front. A four! Was she a pauper? It's disconnected. The note said Track ready, love Sis. She guesses a pin and gets it third attempt. She grabs the earbuds sat next to it. In a draw she finds a smashed up iPhone6. The four is checked, it already had a voice memo app. Good. She'd jog and record her message. Her purse is found, it contained one bank debit card, a bus pass and lots of receipts from a supermarket she'd never heard of before. "Pasta, cheese, beans, lots of green veg. At least you're trying with the diet."

As she goes to leave she notices a hockey stick poking out from under the bed. Contacts app opened she adds AAA MATTIE 0002. On a PostIt she writes a message asking the contact not be deleted, that she listen to the last voice memo.

From the view of of her window she knew she was high up. Ear buds connected and in she looks at the running Apps. Spotify existed in this world too. Nice! She frowns at the track as she heads for the stairs. It was already part way through. Play is tapped.

_Dream on little dreamer. Follow all of your signs_

_You gotta gather up what you need. You gotta choose a direction_

_And when the moment is right for you. You gotta go_

_You gotta keep your ideals high. You got to know that the sky belongs to no one. You know you got to go_

Ideals high. That was her alright.

~~~

Outside, app switched and about to start speaking her message she's almost bumped into by a jogger. "Whoops! Sorry! Coming to practice tonight?"

"Hockey?"

"Deh, yeah, what else?"

"Sure. Usual time and place?"

"Yeah. Everything okay?"

"Just woke up, feeling a little out of it."

"Gone flip mode?"

"Do what?"

"Busta Rhymes? Gimme some more? That track you like?"

"Oh, right. Yeah. See you later, I'm having a jog."

"Laters."

Busta Rhymes? Really? As Mattie ran and got recording her long message part of her mind worked on a question.

Why?

Why run?

What could it do to help prove anything?

Then a possible answer hit her. If it was a dream the world would be like the one Cobb made in Inception. Distances wouldn't be real. You could run in what felt like a perfect square and find the start and end were not the same spot. In the real world they had to be the same location.

".. so stay off the weed. Make up with Emily, she's your BFF in other worlds. You'll wake up wondering how the fuck you got somewhere. Listen to this message in full. I'm Mattie Elster Hawkins. Married to Leo Hawkins, son of David, the inventor of synthetics."

She looked around. Hmm. She hadn't seen a single synth yet. Were there any? Maybe being around campus wasn't the best place to find out. Another student is spotted. "Hi! Anywhere I can hire a Persona synth around here?" She jogs closer.

"Why would you want one of those?"

Good. They were a thing. "It's not for me, it's for a friend."

"Yeah, right. You shag Emily's man to near death and now you want a synth? You're one twisted bitch Hawkins."

"Wh.. never mind."

She turns and runs, holds the earbud mic close to her mouth. "Mattie, Matilda, whatever name you go by, I really hope that you were out of your head when you did that. Shagging Danny? What the fuck? Emily doesn't deserve that. Did you get him stoned too? Throw the drugs away, go cold turkey for a while. It'll be crap for a bit but you'll end up better. I'll try and come back again, give you more info to turn your life around. Danny and Emily work with me at HECLS House on the Elster Estate. We build next generation synths. That humans can transfer their mind into. Look up Max Tegmark, tell him his multiverse thoughts are correct. I've met him in America. The one you meet won't know anything about it as he's in the same universe as you. The one I met predicted Humans version three and the multiverse. Tell him he's on the money. You'll probably think this is some garbage you've waffled while tripping out, it's not. I'm not sure how I can prove it to you. I can't bring money over, only thoughts. I'd give you the numbers for next week's Euro Millions if I could."

She goes to pass another student, gives her a smile and gets a filthy look in return.

"Bitch."

Mattie spins around as she passes, "Listen, I must have been stoned or something, that's not the normal me, honest. I'm giving them up."

"Yeah, right." The girl walks backwards, "There goes that herd of flying pigs again Ruby."

"Wait! You think I'm Ruby?"

"Yeah. Ruby."

"I'm not Ruby, I'm her twin sister Mattie."

"Yeah? What are you doing in her clothes?"

Mattie frowned and looked down. "Her clothes?"

The girl shakes her head and walks away.

Mattie stands and watches her for a few seconds. Bitch? Cunt? Was Ruby next door in room B? Had they been given nicknames based on the room letter they had? Scanning her surroundings Mattie sees a main road, with a bit of luck she'd be able to head down it, turn left and come back to the accommodation.

~~~

She'd been jogging and talking for a good ten minutes when she passes a shop. Water. She needed water. Doubling back she feels for the small purse in her pocket. As it's pulled out a small photo falls to the ground.

"Eh?"

It was of her with a man she didn't recognise. Someone old enough to.. be.. oh no! She pulls the bank card out and looks at the bottom. Valid from and to dates. And the owner's name.

MS R HAWKINS.

"Fuck! Wrong _frigging_ body!" The man in the photo was Ruby's father, the one that got given her by the hospital when Mum was out of it on pain killers, gas and air, unaware she had twins, the other woman having just given birth to a still born.

~~~

[Chapter-32](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-32-1)


	32. Chapter 32

Inside the shop Mattie finds water, grabs some mint gum and strolls around the narrow passages looking to see if there was anything else she'd like. Passing along the magazine shelf she spots one she'd not seen before. Top Synth. The front talked of best mods, top servicing centres and the new models. Worth a look for ideas. She checks the price. Five pounds! It's stuck under her arm.

She scans the long line of magazines starting at the top. All the usual suspects she might have found in a younger Toby's bedroom were there. "What the.." a magazine that didn't exist in her world, at least one she didn't think existed, sat at the end. Synth International. A synth looking _exactly_ like Sandra was posing on the front cover. Skimpy red knickers low on her hips, a red jacket held half open so her nipples were hidden. She grabs a copy. She'd surprise Emily with memories of the content when back.

Checking the rest of the shelves she finds a woman's weekly with story of a human and synth couple. Hmm. What the hell, it was only a quid.

The rest of the magazines looked boring. Nothing on coding. She leaves them and checks out the rest of the store.

Finding nothing else she heads for the counter, gets the debit card out and uses it to fan her face.

"Is everything okay Matilda?"

She turns to see a young teenage girl heading for the till. "Hi. I'm her twin Ruby."

The girl laughs. "You won't give up will you?"

"Sorry?"

"The bet. You'll never win."

"Bet?"

"That you could pass as Ruby." She holds up her phone and snaps a shot. "You lose again. Soz. Ruby's winning, what? Five nil?"

"Five nil?"

"She has to fool people she's you, you her. But you know that. Pretending to be Ruby and forgetting.. so not working."

"So I am wearing her clothes?"

"As you did the last four times. But you can't turn off you being you."

"What do you mean?"

"I can't say, that's what you both agreed, no clues from those who catch either of you out." She looks at the collection of things now in Mattie's hands. "Doing more research?"

"Yeah. Knowing the market helps a lot."

"Can you mod our Simon again?"

"To do what?"

"To improve his running, make it look even more human. It's better, the randomness you added has helped a lot, but it still looks a little robotic."

"Sure. When?"

"Sunday after five?"

"Six okay?"

"Five thirty?"

"Okay." She glances at the phone, it was still recording. Good. "What do I owe you?"

"That lot.. call it twelve. I'll deduct it from the balance."

"Balance?"

"The money I owe you for the mods?"

"Right. That balance."

"Want a bag?"

Mattie laughs, "I thought I'd walk back to my room reading the saucy synth mag and shock everyone. Not. A bag people can't see through please."

The girl bags everything. "There you go. Did Jim try and break you again?"

Jim? She'd only seen one person that might fit the name. "Bleached blonde Jim, needs to fix his roots?"

"LOL, take him a bottle of hair dye. He tried did he?"

"Accused me, Ruby, of stealing Emily's boyfriend."

"Accused isn't the right word when you did it Matilda. Don't you remember?"

Crap! "No. Because it wasn't me. Ruby.. she's the wild one. I'll see you after five thirty Sunday."

~~~

Back in her room curiosity got the better of her. The Synth International wasn't what she'd expected. The Sun's Page Three girls had shown more flesh years ago, before the paper caved into the pressure from the public and stopped using topless models. This was so tame Toby wouldn't have bothered with it. The quality of the photography was good, it was well edited but worth a fiver? No way. Not to her anyway. To her surprise Top Synth had far racier content. It was all backwards. A top shelf mag was mostly harmless, a publication at the height kids could reach was showing synths in sex positions? What the hell was going on in this world?

"Matilda? You in?"

Mattie scrambled to her feet and opened the door. "Ruby!" She grabs her twin and pulls her inside. "This is going to sound weird coming from me.. did you fuck Emily's boyfriend?"

"Arse hole Arun in A, yeah. I did. You know I did. And now she know's Danny's the better man. It's all working out as planned."

"Planned?"

"The one you came up with? Jesus Mats, are you having another one of your turns?"

"Another? Shit. Listen to the recording I've made. It'll sound messed up, I swear it's true."

"Okay. It's my turn to cook tonight. What would you rather, burgers or chicken?"

"Um.."

Snap.

~~~

[Chapter-33](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-33-1)


	33. Chapter 33

Mattie screwed her eyes up tight, made clenched fists and rolled over. When visiting her father's workplace as a kid, staff played the Um Er game in meetings. 10p in a collection tin every time one of the two sounds were made. If she was in a synth body she could probably do a mod to block the sounds. If it would help. Maybe just the hesitation and mental Um was enough. It was frigging inconvenient. Now she had two worlds with unfinished business.

Being face down on what felt like a reasonably comfortable bed wasn't good. A need for air got her moving. She lifts her head to see she was in another bedroom. Smarter than the last. The walls were bare, at the foot of one framed pictures and wooden boards with texts painted on sat as if waiting for someone with nails and a hammer. She was a coder of sorts in this world. Probably. One text said _A user interface is like a joke, if you have to explain it, it's not that good._ There was nothing attributing the words to their author.

She got up and looked at herself in the mirror covered door of a wardrobe. She was in a very expensive looking corset. Nothing else. The corset looked to have a microcomputer woven into the front left. Her hair was immaculate. The nails on her fingers and toes were perfect. Almost too perfect. Was she a synth? No. No data was returned when she thought about the time or other synth functions. Time. If time was correct and constant how had she seen a Christmas grotto in her previous jumps? It wasn't possible. Unless she'd jumped into a Mattie dreaming about a past event, was somehow witnessing the dream? It was the only logical explanation that worked.

The door of the nearest cupboard is opened. Wow! Chock full of designer dresses. The next was full of blouses, waistcoats and trousers. The third had jeans and t-shirts, all in sealed bags as if never worn. The forth had neatly arranged shelves full of shoes. Shoes. Not a single pair of trainers?

On the dressing table were a number of framed pictures. One was of Sophie, possibly eighteen. Another was of Toby and Mia. Another of Mum and Dad. A larger one was of her and Leo. The last was of Emily and Danny in wedding outfits. Good.

She carefully takes the phone from the charge base and goes to unlock it. It prompted her for a six digit code. Mattie? 628843? It unlocked. Cool. She goes to add a contact AAA MATTIE 0003 and finds AAA MATTIE 3927. "Frigging hell! _How many!_ " The phone's dropped on the dresser as if she'd just realised she'd picked up a scorpion by mistake. "Shit!"

Someone had visited her in her world, given her the long message. Could they have been doing the same thing, had the same idea to add a contact in that format? Or had Mattie been influenced to do the same? Or, somewhat worse, had she been doing this in her sleep for ages, waking with no memory of what was happening?

Sitting on the bed she closes her eyes. Contacts. What did she see when scrolled to the top looking for Andrew Parish's number, the ace maths coder she knew at uni? And there it was. A similar contact in her own phone. AAA MATTIE 0942. Fuck. How had she not paid any attention to it before? Was there anything in the Notes field? She'd need to get back home to find out.

~~~

This Mattie had got a message, she could spend a moment looking around instead. Leo had been given strict instructions, if she didn't return to the vault of her own accord in three hours he was to stop the asteroid spinning and get her to the workshop. A reboot that would cause memory loss was unacceptable, he'd have to connect her to the switch and get a separate live backup done before trying things to snap her back.

A dress is picked, matching shoes taken from a shelf. Underwear? Where was underwear? Didn't this Mattie wear any? She steps into the dress, wriggles it up and does up the zip. The shoes were a perfect fit, felt like they'd been made especially for her. A few small steps in the restrictive dress got her in front of the mirror door. Hot! Whoever made these dresses knew her figure well. Or at least the shape the corset got her into. She steps to the bedroom door to leave the room and finds it opens onto a large on-suite bathroom. "Oh. How do I get out?"

"Good morning Commander. No hibernation sickness this time?"

"Mitch?"

"Yes?"

"Where am I?"

"Arc Ship A."

"How do I get out of the bedroom?"

"You don't."

"What the fuck. I'm a prisoner?"

"You're suffering from memory loss again? Oh dear."

"Again?"

"It's happened twice before. You acted.. differently."

"Strangely?"

"Yes."

"Pretend I know nothing. Give me the short summary."

"Again? World war three. Everyone is in the solid state NASA systems here on the ship, three copies in different locations just in case. Scavenger ships one to twenty should be returning in a few months when they've gathered enough hydrocarbons to escape Earth's gravity with their heavy cargos."

"What the.. World War Three? What date is it?"

"21st July 2017."

"Shit. And the war started when?"

"Early 2016, exact date debatable. Until the James pilots return with the scavenger ships we don't have the ability to bring anyone back. We have all the fabrication machines, skin mix, no raw metal for the skeletons."

"How many people survived?"

Silence.

"Mitch? How many?"

"She's talking to me."

"I meant globally, not just family."

"You're it. The sole survivor of the human race."

Tears start to roll. She went light headed and wobbled.

"May I please suggest you get back on the bed Mattie?"

Mattie stepped slowly towards it, "I feel.. weak. How do I eat?"

"You don't. While you sleep I inject nutrients directly into your bloodstream."

"And why haven't I lost all of my muscle mass?"

"Gentle shock treatments."

Mattie leant against a wardrobe. "Why all the fancy clothes and nothing for Leo?"

"Your quarters were reduced and sealed off after the accident. His wardrobes are on the other side of the far wall."

"What accident?"

"You were stepping through the airlock when a failed ICBM wiped out the sky lift carriage the family were in."

"A what?"

"Intercontinental ballistic missile."

"Frig. We hadn't seen it coming?"

"You had, Leo insisted you went first. He gave you a hard shove and closed the airlock a fraction of a second before it hit."

"Shit. And I'm alone here now?"

"Not quite. I'm here."

"A voice only AI. Great."

"I have a body. Just not one I feel you'd like to see again."

"Why?"

"You honestly don't remember?"

"No."

"You were inspired by a film, as you often are, built it in secret with the parts to hand before the room was sealed. I find the body adequate for the limited tasks I need to perform."

"Show me."

"I'd rather not. You might try and hit me again."

"Again?"

"As you did the last time you had an episode."

"Describe your body then."

~~~

[Chapter-34](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-34-1)


	34. Chapter 34

Mattie asked for the fourth time as she checked out the t-shirts. "Mitch! I'm not getting back on the bed. Not until you tell me."

"Please. You need to conserve your energy."

"No."

"If you die then who will operate the build machines? James has hands far too large."

"Talk to me Mitch. About your body."

"I need you to cooperate."

"Then do as I ask."

"It's like a large black widow spider. Very large."

"Cool!"

"You like spiders again?"

"Again? Mum doesn't, I think they're awesome examples of evolution and nature's engineering. They've been that same basic shape since the dinosaurs. Or longer. No need to change."

"So you won't freak out?"

"Nope."

Mitch scurries out from under the bed.

" _Holy shit!_ "

"You said.."

"Your size! I was shocked at your size!" She bends down and picks him up, his legs flail in the air. "Wow!"

"I wish I had a full synth body, I might be able to work out what's wrong with you, why you're suffering memory loss again."

"I'm not." She puts him on the bed. "I'll share a bit of information with you since there's nobody else to share it with except Mattie via message. I'm not your Mattie. I'm a Mattie from an alternate reality. In my world you're an AI running the building at HECLS House. And DJ and security at a restaurant in America. No body yet, human or spider looking."

"That would explain some of the things said when the last episode occurred."

"What happened?"

"You spent hours singing Hello at the top of your lungs, crying, saying you hadn't asked to be here, how could you get back."

"Oh." She sat turned and lay down. "If you're in a spider body, who did the ship modifications to shut me in?"

"James One using his original body through the remote interface."

"Who told him to do it?"

"You did. To keep oxygen use limited to this space. If we have damage to the ship we'll not lose air. This room is the most protected we have. We're in an orbit hiding behind the moon now, it protects us from asteroid strikes."

"Who's running the ship?"

"I am. Just as you asked."

"How old am I?"

"Twenty nine."

"Whoa. That's quite a difference."

"You're older in your world?"

"Younger and we've only just started our sky lift."

"Then some of our video archives might be of use to you. Give me a moment." He scurries down the side of the bed.

"Where are you going?"

"My charge and data port are under the bed."

Mattie slides off the bed and gets to her knees and looks under it. "What the heck is all that?"

"The systems that keep you alive when asleep."

"Who designed it?"

"Fred. For the medical room. It was moved in here by James Twenty Two."

"Twenty Two?"

"The rest of One's unit decided which side they wanted to be on."

"Side?"

"The Synth War. Niska led the HSC.."

"The what?"

"Sorry, Human Synth Coalition, Hester led the synth army."

"Hester? What a bitch she is. How many were there in her army?"

"Sixty three percent of the synth population. You have a damaged Hester in your world?"

"Had. Niska crushed her head after she stabbed Leo. I'm guessing your one didn't attack Leo?"

"No. She formed an army and started a global war. The family fled at the end, taking the sky lift up here. It all happened so fast we were caught.. as you put it, _Quite literally with our pants down_."

"Pants down?"

"No underwear supplies, they were on the unmanned carriage above yours, lost earlier due to another accident. We lost a lot of food and oxygen supplies."

"Oxygen? How much do you have?"

"Enough to last until James returns and 

"What are you doing?"

"Making a new set of connections. Could you get back on the bed please?"

"Making connections with what?"

"Bed please."

"Okay, okay. Don't get your silk in a bunch." She does as asked. "There. Better?"

"Thank you, yes. To answer your previous question, my spinnerets. You took an idea from David and Danny and gave me the ability to spin pure silver. I can rewire parts of the ship if there are emergencies. Low current data connections, not things like high current power lines.”

"Cool!" She frowns at a change in colour of the mirror doors to the wardrobes. "Mattie and Spider Mitch. The last two intelligent beings in the solar system. It sounds like something to give to Toby for his next book."

"Don't forget James down on Earth. Your Toby writes too?"

"I didn't, yeah, his first book is close to being published. Sun Boy and Moon Girl. He wrote it with Mia while in hospital."

"Encourage them to keep going. Ours won the Man Booker International Prize for fiction."

"No way! That's frigging awesome!"

Mitch scrambles back up the bed, looks at Mattie looking at him. "You're definitely not my Mattie, you're different. And you're sure you're not repulsed by this body?"

"Not in the slightest."

The two innermost cupboard doors light up, thin monitors hidden behind the glass.

"As I have no idea how long you'll be here I'll play short clips from many of the videos we have on file that focus on the sky lift."

"Thanks."

The clips were incredibly short. "Let me know if I need to slow down or make them longer."

"This is fine. In my world I'm a synth. I'll remember everything."

"You too? How wonderful. Shall I speed them up then?"

"This is fine, just how.. STOP!"

"Is something wrong?"

"Go back two. Another one. Play the whole of the video that clip came from."

The video was ten minutes long to the second, footage taken from what appeared to be the steps of their equivalent of HECLS House. "Dave Mellon, Waltringham Gazette. You dirty, fucking, bastard."

"You know this man?"

"He and some WAP members came to our home."

"He _is_ WAP. The man behind everything they did in the war that followed a month from this video. He came to the house to prove to his people how easy it was to infiltrate our organisation."

"I checked his backup? He was a double agent working for another paper. Why would he do this?"

"He wasn't a reporter at all, not in our world. That was a cover. He's an expert on mind control, rose quickly through the ranks of WAP. If your one is like ours, the backup you got was not the full picture. He fed you what you wanted to hear."

"How could he possibly do that?"

"Equipment and a synth stolen from Athena Morrow after she'd save Pete. He'd concentrate, take a backup and restore it into the synth. He did it many hundreds of times until he got it right."

"And how do you know all this?"

"He was so cocky, so sure he knew his team. Olivia was working for the synths. Her partner Hubert had been killed in a smash club, she wanted revenge. She walked into the police station and handed Karen Voss everything. Names, phone recordings, video. Mr Mellon didn't stay a free man very long. If he's the same man in your world give him a tiny dose of pain killers and the equivalent of six cups of strong coffee. He needs to be relaxed to do his trick. Get him buzzing enough and his guard will come down. That's what our Pete had suggested, it worked for us. Do you have a Pete?"

"We do. A month you say?"

"Yes."

"Thanks. You won't believe how useful that information is."

"Can you tell me why?"

"In my world he's only just visited. Possibly still there."

"I see."

"What caused World War Three in your world?"

"Not what, who. This man in his second term." The image changes.

"Holy crap! He was voted in _again_? Frig. They're so fucked up it's untrue."

"How would you get him out of office?"

"Um.."

Snap.

~~~

[Chapter-35](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-35-1)


	35. Chapter 35

Blast! She hadn't wanted to leave! Her new location wasn't a disappointment though. She was now in what looked like a large walk in wardrobe. Her reflection in the floor to ceiling mirror looked good. Her red hair was brushed and pulled back into an immaculate high ponytail. With Emily getting her red hair extensions Mattie had wondered how she'd look with her hair dyed another colour. This deep red looked okay. Better than okay.

She turns left then right, adjusts the belt. The fitted blouse, smart tapered business trousers and heals looked perfect. Trackie bottoms and t-shirt they were not but they felt comfortable. This was the sort of look the Mattie sat high up in the building would wear. Maybe this was that sort of Mattie, just in another world. 'Hello.'

No answer came.

'I'm Mattie, lovely clothes you have.'

Still nothing.

This couldn't be the Mattie who'd seen Danny in just a towel earlier, she couldn't have got her hair done that fast, no way. She adjusts the collar on the blouse, undid a second button. That looked better. No cleavage on show, just more of her neck and collarbones.

Mattie frowned at the reflection, looked down and back up. Something wasn’t quite right. She slowly studies the reflection. Everything looked correct. Yet something was off. The finer details were checked again. That was it. The buttons were on the wrong side. Her left, the reflection's right. She reaches behind her head with her left hand and pulls the ponytail end over her shoulder. Her hair was brunette, not red like the reflection’s. She frowns. The reflection frowned back in perfect synchronisation. Was this a monitor showing an augmented reality video feed? If so where was the camera? It would explain the reflection being.. no. That couldn't be the answer. The actions she'd performed, they were on the correct side. The hand still holding the ponytail is moved fast, made to wave at the reflection. The reflection waves back. There was a slight lag. Mattie made a fist, the reflection did the same. The fist is whipped left and stopped rapidly. 

The reflection puts her hands on her hips and looks perplexed. "You said you wouldn't make sudden moves?"

"What the frig?"

"What's wrong Mats?"

Mattie laughs. "I thought you were my reflection!"

"I am."

Mattie reaches out and touches her cheek. "Very funny Ruby. You can’t brush the cheek of a reflection like that.”

“Sure you can. What is wrong Mats, why call me Ruby?”

"You're my twin sister, what else should I call you?"

It's rewarded with a hug, "Aww, you think of me as a twin? That's so lovely! Jenny will be pleased."

"Jenny?"

"Jimmy's Jenny. She paid for the flight to the UK remember? Now she and Jimmy are settled they definitely don't need me being a third wheel."

"Jimmy.. UK or US?"

"US. The Exo-Suit test pilot Jimmy. What's wrong with you? You're behaving strangely."

"Am I?"

"You've never called me Ruby before. Harun's Fantasy, Hot Mess, Red, plenty other nicknames. Even by my designated name some times but.."

"Designated name?"

"Scarlet. I detect your life signs are.." Scarlet grabs Mattie and guides her backwards the few steps to the bed behind her. "Don't black out on me Mats!"

"You're a synth? A fork?"

"Fork is such a dirty word. I'm your reflection. Made to look after Jimmy. Now I help look after you."

"Do I need looking after?"

"Clearly so."

'Stop taking a backseat and talk to me Mats!'

Still no reply.

"My head hurts. Where's my phone?"

"Can I get you a headache tablet and your phone?"

"Please.”

Scarlet steps through the gap in the wall and turns right. With her out of sight Mattie checks the floor. A fancy carpet joining strip had caused the optical illusion. Mats and Scarlet clearly liked playing a game, dressed identically. Was it to pass the time? If so, why? There was a bed behind her, a bed in the room on the other side. By the side of Mat's bed was a photo of her with Leo. On Scarlet's there looked to be a picture of her with a woman and a man. Friends Jenny and Jimmy?

Scarlet returns with a tablet, phone and water. "Here you go."

"Thanks." Mattie takes the tablet and water, knocks it back. Next she tries to unlock the phone, fails. "Blast."

"028669."

"Two eight six, the first CPU I played with? Sixty nine..”

“It spells Bunny."

"With six digits?"

"0 is a blank, has no letter. Oh Bunny? Leo picked the code because you Oh Bunny so much."

"I do?"

"Oh Bunny, you're so sweet. Oh Bunny, you didn't need to.. I'm not supposed to say this, but he jokes that his nickname _is_ Oh Bunny not Bunny you say it so much.”

Mattie checks her host's hand. Just a single ring. An engagement ring. With a heart shaped diamond. "He is a keeper."

"Hopefully they'll be back at the end of the month, the WHO won't extend the trip a third time. I'm missing Fred."

"Fred?"

"You really aren't okay are you? The day he was helping Danny service the cooling system, got drenched in fluid and ripped his jumper and shirt off, let us see his awesome physique for the first time?"

"Oh that. Yes."

"Mats, you forget what I am. You don't remember do you? Something we've talked about so often."

'Please talk to me Mats!'

Still nothing.

Mattie adds a AAA MATTIE 0003 contact, then thinks about the clothes they were both wearing. She didn't need to add them in order did she? Scarlet liked fun clearly. She changes it to 1010. Ten out of ten.

Scarlet watches her sister’s finger ends tapping keys. "What are you doing?"

"Saving a contact. Done."

"But it's just a name, no phone number or email?"

"I don't need one."

"Because you know your own number?"

"No. Because I need it to return here. Maybe. If there's a reason to return."

Scarlet scrunches her nose up. "Now you're really not making any sense."

"Sit down with me a moment." Mattie pats the end of the bed.

"Okay."

"If I told you I'm not from here, I'm from another world, somehow visiting. I'm in Mats body, my mind doing the walking and talking?"

"Frigging hell! You're the visitor!"

"You what?"

"I've had a visit from you!"

"I think I'd have remembered."

"I was in the cafe on the park level getting us both a coffee."

"Nope, sorry, not me."

"Frigging hell! There's more than one of you doing it?"

"Apparently so. Interesting that it works with forks too. Sorry, reflections.”

Scarlet pulls her phone from her pocket, checks her contacts. "AAA MATTIE 1234?"

"Definitely not me. Edit it, add a heart and Read Notes."

"And put what in the notes?"

"To stop and chat."

"Do you think it will work?"

"No idea. If you don't ask.."

"You don't get." The entry is edited. “Oh.”

“Something wrong?”

“There’s notes already. Woo. One, two, three, four. Let me hear you scream if you want some more. Like uhh, push it, push it. Watch me work it, I'm perfect. What the frig is that supposed to mean?”

Mattie chuckles, “It’s words from a song. Princess Superstar. One that Emily likes.”

“Emily left this?”

“No, I’m just saying I know the song because of my Emily.”

“Oh. Would that be the same Emily who heads security here at the pyramid?”

“I have no idea. What does she look like?”

“If I can have your phone a second?”

“Sure.”

“Let me see... People album.. This is her.”

“Yup. That’s the princess alright.”

“Princess? You call her that in your world too?”

“She has a prince for a father, so yes.”

“Interesting.”

“Does she here?”

“No idea. She’s very private when it comes to her life outside. How do you do it, jump between worlds?”

"No idea yet."

"Oh. That sucks."

"Yeah."

"On the subject of sucking. Maybe you can answer this, nobody else will. Why do they call it a blow job?"

"No idea!"

"Fred crashed and rebooted the first time I gave him one.”

Mattie feels her host’s face going a tiny bit red. “Seriously?"

"Sensory data overload apparently. The code mod Mats gave him sorted that."

"Code mod? What did it do?"

"You, sorry, Mats, added the equivalent of IP QoS. New code to sit between sensors and the root code. Sixteen queues with sensors mapped into different priorities, different bandwidths and drop rates assigned to each."

"So sensors can never overwhelm his cores?"

"Yeah. He can still feel everything, just not be made to pass out. Crash."

"Cool." She pictures her fork, the fork in her world she said she's never do, imagined her and Fred. She surprised herself, she didn't find the thought of Scarlet and Fred together performing oral sex disgusting. Maybe her Fred back home with Tabitha then Demi's fork Rose had got her used to the idea of Fred being with someone? Stranger things had happened. And she’d stumbled on enough images spying on Toby years ago to get a little conditioned to such things. Sex was natural. Her French trip had shown they were a good example of different mindsets. They thought mixed sexes toilets were okay, had stars sit on and use the loo in films. Natural body functions to some, disgusting to others. It all depended on what you were brought up with.

She looked through the gap at the other bed. How did they get any privacy? If she was getting passionate with Leo it would be on display for Scarlet to see. Unless there was a hidden door? The sides of the gap were solid. Maybe the door came down from above? If they were on the top floor of the tall building the space above would be mostly empty. She couldn’t see outside, blinds internal to the windows blocked out the view. "How does the gap between rooms close?"

"It doesn't yet. That side used to be your walk in wardrobe. Danny says he'll get a door on before the boys get home. Does the thought of us seeing each other in bed with our men disturb you?"

"Er.."

Snap!

~~~

[Chapter-36](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-36-1)


	36. Chapter 36

God damnit! She had to stop doing that! Mattie found herself now kneeling on a sofa, hands on the back, knees apart, back arched. Nice wallpaper! Her mind focused on other senses. She was naked. Not even wearing the corset of the last but one jump. Fingers were working on her clitoris, getting her close to climax. She'd seen the wallpaper before. Where? She feels a wet finger playing with her anus. It felt like it had a well manicured long nail. Shit! The wallpaper! This was Emily's house! The finger tip makes a circle and is slipped inside. Mattie gasps as it's quickly turned and works on her G-spot. Biology classes were crap but she had remembered it was located in the wall shared between vagina and rectum. One of the handful of facts that stuck. Her breathing becomes heavier as she gets closer still. Hands gently massage her bottom while the fingers continue to get her closer. Oh shit! That meant _two_ people! She closes her eyes, feels the orgasm coming. Part of her wanted to jump away immediately, another was far too curious.

Sofa cushions move as someone climbed on. They started teasing and sucking a nipple! There were three people! Holy.. she shudders as a world shattering orgasm hits. "Fuck!"

There's a loud pop and the lighting changes.

"CUT! _Fucking lights!_ "

"Danny?"

She turns her neck and hips to see an angry Danny in a director's chair, Leo sat in another in a dressing gown. She turns one way then the other. At the sofa were Emily, Niska and Astrid. "What the fuck!"

"Babes? You okay?"

"No, no, No! This _isn't_ happening."

"I know, the fuses for the LED lights keep blowing."

"I mean this. Us. This isn't me!" Mattie sits and looks around for something to cover herself up.

"Mattila the bum. Best arse in the business? Maybe if we'd got pass marks in at least one exam we wouldn't be earning a small fortune doing this. Please don't say you've changed your mind again, think about the boys!"

"Change my mind? More like got a new one."

"Our BBS gets the most logins of any server this month!"

"BBS? You mean web site?"

"Web? What's that?"

"The Internet?"

"Are you feeling okay?"

"TCP/IP? The Internet, Ethernet, Broadband? Do any of those mean anything to you?"

"No Babes?"

"Dial up, WAN circuits, Multiplexers?"

"Now you're saying things I can understand."

"Shit. I'm in the frigging stone age! I need to go. Someone ask me another question."

Leo stands and opens his dressing gown. "Where can I stick this?"

"Oh my lord!" This was madness! "Er.."

Snap!

~~~

Holy crap that was horrible! She liked sex, would admit it. Sex in _private!_ A four girl lesbian romp before Leo did God only knows what in front of the others _and_ cameras.. all shared on a BBS with total strangers? No no no. A billions times no! Some elements were okay, the sofa position and powerful orgasm, but the rest. No. A _zillion_ times no! Note to self. Don't be thinking about sex before an Um or Er!

She felt like shit, was on her back, eyes closed. What time was it? There’s a noise. She turns her head to face it and opens her eyes. A padded room? "Oh no." She sits and feels far worse. "Oh my God!" Her arms. They were covered in needle and scratch marks! Shit shit shit! It looked like Mattie the weed smoker had progressed onto harder drugs in this world. "Hello?"

Silence.

Second note to self. Be _very_ careful what you think of before an Um or Er!

She'd been in the other worlds for a total of what felt like an hour or so. If she had no way out of here she'd be stuck for almost two hours. Crap. "Nice one Mattie, Mats, Matilda, whatever the fuck you call your stupid arse."

"Stupid? Thanks a frigging bunch. I blame Harun."

Holy shit! The owner of the body wasn't taking a back seat, she was riding shotgun! "Do you know who I am?"

"If you're the other world me who walked me into this fucking rehab centre, yes."

"Oh. Different me."

"There's more than one?"

"Close to four thousand, possibly way more. I've no idea how many can do this."

"Oh fucking joy. If I get a visit from all of you I'm never getting out."

"Why?"

"Looked around much?"

"There's not much to see." She looks around.

"Look up."

Mattie looks up at the ceiling. "Oh crap. That’s a lot of hardware.”

"I think they record everything. The shrink's been asking enough questions."

"Do they let anyone visit?"

"If talking through a speaker is visiting, sure, nobody's bothered in weeks."

"Ask for a Max Tegmark to visit from America."

"You're delusional. Nobody's going to come visit me from that far. Nobody."

"Ask! If you don't ask, you don't get.."

"America? Are you frigging mad?" There's a clunk and the door opens. A man in hospital whites steps in followed by an old man in smart trousers, shirt and cardigan. "What?"

A few seconds later a third man in white shirt and jeans steps to the doorway.

Mattie looks at him in disbelief. "OH MY GOD! MAX TEGMARK!"

"You know who I am?"

She smiles, "We met in Orlando, world nine four two, you'd been at a conference in Texas."

Max frowns, "A conference in Texas?" He looks at the older man. "I'm due to attend a conference there in two weeks. Nobody but my fiancee knows I'm attending. It was rescheduled due to a hurricane."

Mattie sits back on the bed, "Attending? In my world I think you were a key speaker. And you'd married your fiancee."

"Really? Can you describe her?"

"Sorry, we didn't meet. You flew to Orlando to meet me and the others, flew back the same evening."

"I flew to meet you? No disrespect but why would I do that?"

"We're now human three point zero."

The colour drains from Max's face. "Say that again?"

"You heard right. I'm human three point zero."

Max goes to the bed and sits beside her. "My work, it's not even off draft manuscripts, locked away, not even my fiancee has seen it."

"We've achieved it thanks to David."

"David?"

"Elster."

The older man whispers something Mattie can't hear.

Max looks up at him. "The thing you were telling me about? He's cracked it?"

The older man crouches down in front of her, it looked to be quite a painful challenge. "Do you know how he did it?"

"The seventeen.. yeah, sure. I could write it all down for you if I had time, we study it in our Uni lectures now and I've seen it enough times, created some improvements of my own. Physically I'm standing in our vault at the Elster estate. My husband Leo has instructions to take me to the workshop if I don't return of my own accord in three hours." She watches him put a trembling hand to his mouth. "A lot of that time is up, even at two twenty words a minute I couldn't type what I need to fast enough."

"Blast." The man sits on his bottom. "The chances of ever getting the details are infinitesimally small. The chances of this Mattie returning here are also too slim."

Max nods, "I agree. Sorry George. We'll not be able to prove your theory."

Mattie's jaw drops for a second. "George? Did the previous Mattie give you clues? Is this why you're here?"

"Yes. Major hints. We've been studying Mattie for a couple of months now, we were on the verge of giving up and packing it all in when you arrived."

"So I've been a lab rat? Thanks a fucking bunch!"

Mattie slaps herself lightly. "If they've got you off the shit you were addicted to think yourself frigging lucky!" She turns and sits so far forward her bottom starts to lift off the bed. "Are you, by some weird coincidence, George Millican?"

"Oh my dear lady! You know my name. How?"

"A lucky guess. I only know of one George and we've never met. In my world Karen shot you by accident. You worked with David, my husband Leo's father. And that shit Edwin Hobb."

George rocks backwards and flops to the padded floor. "This is too much of a coincidence Max. I _has_ to be true. Unless Mattie's got Top Secret clearance, or is a spy and brilliant safe cracker."

Mattie slides off the low bed and sits on the floor. "What makes you say that?"

"In this world it was Edwin that got shot. The government hushed it up. I've just committed a crime by revealing that but this is far too important to let go. We need to know more. Is there a trick? Something we'd be missing?"

"I'm told our George was dead against it at first. Then he met Niska. I guess I could write a shorter summary? Anyone got a laptop or tablet?"

"Tablet?"

"iPad or Android tablet?" She reads the blank faces. "Touch screen systems with on screen keyboard? Shit. Why do so many worlds have to be so frigging backwards? At least you've got synths. You bypassing tablets is interesting. Do you have smartphones?"

Max pulls out a phone Joe would have called a Mars Bar. "We can send SMS messages? Is that what you mean?"

"No. Like small tablets. Touch screens, WiFi connectivity, 4G, apps. No? Shit. Do your synths have WiFi?"

"Why fly?"

"Oh Jesus! Laptops? You must have laptops?"

"A computer you put on your lap?"

"Yes!"

"Why would you want that with a synth to every human?"

"You're frigging kidding me. Nobody feels the need to write letters, poetry, books, film scripts? Does _anyone_ use a keyboard these days?"

"Why would you want to use one of those archaic devices?"

"Archaic? That'll make my family laugh. I'm assuming Mattie here has a phone. Do you have it?"

The rehab centre employee nods, "I can get it."

"Please!"

~~~

He steps outside for a moment.

Max stands, "Who do you plan to call?"

"Nobody. I want to see if there's a contact saved. If not I'm adding one."

"A contact?"

"A contact." The man returns and hands her a pink Blackberry Curve. "Thanks! This is almost up to what I'd call smartphone standards." She powers it up. The phone didn't have any sort of lock enabled, allowed her to enter AAA MATTIE 0003. "See, you do still have keyboards. Sure it's a tiny one but it still counts. There, done. Thanks. You can put it back."

Her body grips it tight. "I'd like to hold on to it if I may. Please?"

The staffer shakes his head, "When doc Wilkins says you're good. I'll arrange a visit for this afternoon if you'd like?"

"Um.."

Snap.

~~~

"BUGGER!"

The asteroid was spinning fast, Leo, James Two and Three watching her closely.

"Angel?"

"I need to get back! I've just met George!"

"George? But he's.. describe him."

"I'll go one better." She bumps memories of their meeting.

"That's him. You never met him did you?"

"Not in this life."

"So it is real. How many worlds did you visit?"

"In the middle of a steamy session with you, at my office in the pyramid, uni digs, on Arc Ship A, a dodgy film set, rehab centre, so six. And I need to get back!"

"Why?"

"To help George with the code!"

"To?"

"Wake up synths!"

"Is that a wise move?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"What are his motives? 

"Ah.. not sure actually."

"What if they weren't good? You jump back, give him what he wants, you never get to see that world again and fix any mess it creates."

"Hmm. You have a point.."

"You'd be like an invisible stone dropped into the lake, ripples spreading out from an unknown source."

"Like a hit and run. Damn it. If I was a synth I could tell if he was telling the truth."

"Do they have synths?"

"Yup."

"So get one of them to work with you."

"Easier said than done Bunny."

"Why?"

"In that world it looks like I'm a junkie undergoing rehab."

"Oh."

"Worth a shot though." She beckons him closer and has a hug. "Drop Radiant's speed down then crank it back up guys. This time plug a charge cable in, let me stay a whole day if needed."

~~~

[Chapter-37](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-37-1)


	37. Chapter 37

Mattie focuses her mind, tries to influence the world she jumped to as the asteroid picks up speed. The RPM climbed higher and..

Snap.

~~~

Standing on a pebble beach, a flat stone in hand, she feels spray hit her face. Waves crash onto the shore.

"Are you going to throw it or not?"

Mattie watches the waves for a second and flicks it hard. "Don't be impatient Ruby."

"Fancy mac and cheese tonight?"

"Um.."

Snap.

~~~

“I’ve made the cheese sandwiches for them.”

“Thanks.” She smiles at Flash. The kitchen wasn’t one she recognised. In front of her was a coffee and opened women’s magazine.

“Is there anything else you’d like me to do for you Mrs Kahn?”

“Mrs Kahn?” She’d married Harun! Oh boy! “Call me Mattie.”

“Not Matilda?”

‘Matilda? Can you hear me?’

‘If you’re going to be another that starts lecturing me on Harun when they’ve never met my one..’

‘Not me.’

‘Good. My one’s a designer for Persona, loving and supportive, doesn’t touch weed anymore. What’s your one doing?’

‘No idea.’

‘Don’t you care?’

What on earth was the music playing in the background? ‘Um..’

Snap!

~~~

Her next host was jumping up and down, loud music playing. Wellies, shorts and t-shirt was the outfit of choice. She didn’t recognise the names of the festivals printed on the many plastic bands around her wrist. She did recognise the music and vocals, it had been played in the workshop enough.

_You live your life just once, so don’t forget about a thing called love_

“Matilla, beer or cider?”

Mattie turns to see Emily in a similar outfit, caked in mud. “Frigging hell Ems, what happened?”

“Slipped. The plastic tiara Sophie got me stayed in place thank mod. Which is it?” She holds the two plastic two pint glasses out.

“Which do you want?”

“I’m easy. You know that hun.” She winks.

Mattie makes circles with fingers and thumbs and holds them to her eyes like glasses. “If I mix things up, will beer and cider goggles make me see any better?”

“Now you’re being silly.”

“A modicum of silliness is allowed isn’t it?”

“Modicum? Babes? Have you swallowed a dictionary?”

“Yes. No. Maybe. I’ll let my future self deal with that question. Ask it again in a moment.” ‘If you can hear me body owner.. sorry! I feel.. a way I’ve not felt for a while.’

“Future you?”

“The one who’ll talk to you in a few seconds. Where are we?”

“This is only our sixth festival in two months. You’re a scatty arse sometimes Hawkins, but I do love you. Synths and Fabs Leeds. Which do you want?”

“Cider please. Wow, only our sixth, it feels like more.. the music sounds awesome.”

“Of course it flipping does! Why’d you think we’ve got DCL CREW shirts on?”

Mattie looks down at her chest. “Oh. Soz, being thick.”

“Or close to sloshed.”

“More than close. Danny Candlin Limited. What does the back say?” She felt like sitting down somewhere, trying to drink either with so many jumping up and down around her could get messy.

Emily turns around then back. “Danny let me come up with the double-entendre. Nice eh?”

“Um..”

Snap!

~~~

Now she was sat at the dining table doing paper-mache with Sophie. The destination hadn't been correct again, although it was definitely her fault again. She'd not had one in mind, only an action, sitting. She looks around, "Where's everyone else?"

"Tobias is at band practice.."

"Tobias? You mean Toby?"

Sophie stops and gives her a stern look. "If one wants to start a war of words again one may call him that."

"One? What the frig happened to you?"

Sophie gasps. "Papa! Matilda swore!"

Laura steps into the kitchen. "Joseph! Matilda's gone strange again!"

"Mum?"

"It's _Mother_. Were is this common talk coming from Matilda?"

"Common? What the fu.. Oh. My. God! What the frig happened to you?"

Joe had entered the room. He frowns and looks at his wife. "Nothing?"

"Dad? When did you become a hipster?"

"A what?"

"That long beard, waistcoat, shoes without socks. Please don't tell me you've got a pipe."

"Of course I've got a pipe. What's wrong with you?"

Rehab rehab rehab! "Um.."

Snap.

~~~

The saying _be careful what you wish for, it might just come true_ couldn't have been more apt. She'd got _exactly_ what she wished for. Just not the rehab centre with the nice warm padded room, Max and George. This one stank, was damp and cold. And she was strapped to the bed. "Frig!"

"Shut it Hawkins."

She looks sideways to see a nurse filling a syringe with something. "What's that?"

"Naltrexone. I'll not say it again. Shut it."

"No."

"Want a nasty alternative to an injection?"

I’d like somewhere warmer than this! "Um.."

Snap.

~~~

The next world was warm. Very wet and warm. She got a light punch to the face and a kick. There was noise from outside, the sound of something moving. Then everything rolled sideways.

Outside something happened, there were muffled noises and Mattie got another kick.

The muffled sound happened again.

?

Snap.

~~~

"Oh my God! It's beautiful!" Many miles below the Australian coastline twinkled away in the dark. "How can people not want to protect our planet?"

"Was that question directed at myself commander?"

"Sorry, who are you?"

"What am I would be a more appropriate question."

"Okay then. What are you?"

"I'm an intelligent HECIS environment suit model three."

"HECIS? Cool, the American side of HECLS took off then."

"If a fifty billion dollar profit is taking off, then yes."

" _Profit_? Holy crap! Why so much?"

"That's less than six dollars a head."

"What?"

"Fifty billion dollars, eight point five billion people on the planet.."

"Hold up. Are you saying we've helped _everyone_? Even from the developing nations?"

"Elster, Musk, DiCaprio, Candlin, their foundations ensured nobody was left behind."

"Behind?"

"The Earth is vacant. It looks lovely from here, it's now a toxic radioactive wasteland. The lights you see are illuminating empty roads. The power plants are failing slowly." There’s a bright flash below. “There goes another. That’s another nuclear plant gone.”

"Aren't you curious about the questions I'm asking?"

"No commander. Your failing body and lack of oxygen explain the confusion you're suffering."

"Failing body?"

"You're dying commander. From your life signs I predict death will occur in just under four minutes."

"Death? What the fuck am I doing out here then?"

"Waiting to die, taking one last look at Earth before the fleet departs."

"For?"

"The next inhabitable solar system."

"And what happens to us?"

"I'm just an environment suit. I can be left behind."

"And what am I supposed to do?"

"Experience death."

"I start HECLS, years later get left behind to die in orbit?"

"It's what you asked for."

"Asked for? What the hell? Why?"

"You want to experience death. As you put it, _without being cheated_. You experienced your own birth."

"Whoa whoa whoa. I what?"

"You were human, then a synthetic, now human again.."

"Human _again_?"

"Organically grown super human computer. Inspired by the biology of your daughter Molly and research done by your sisters, Doctor Ruby Elster and Doctor Sophie Maru."

“Sophie married?”

“As did Ruby.”

"Why don't I want to live, be with my family?"

"You do. You will. Just not for a few more minutes. I'm streaming your final thoughts into the fact store for your new body as we speak. When your heart stops and I can detect no more brain activity you will be woken in the next body as planned, all memories of the experience intact."

Life eternal. And a voluntary switch, not through an unplanned death. "This isn't my moment. It belongs to the original owner. Ask me questions."

"Such as?"

"Um.."

Snap.

~~~

[Chapter-38](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-38-1)


	38. Chapter 38

Now she was in a woods, dressed in jeans and blue and grey camouflage hoodie, a rucksack on her back. There was nobody around. Crap. "Hello?"

Silence.

A rat runs out from under a bush and stops to look at her.

"What?"

It squeaks, hisses and chatters.

"Are you trying to say something? If you are I've got no frigging idea what you're saying."

Squeak?

"Um.."

Snap.

~~~

Mattie laughs at the thought of a rat helping her out.

The librarian in front of her taps her display with the end of a Biro. "I've found it. The ISBN you want is 9781350050464."

"Cool! Thanks!"

“Would you like me to write that down?”

“9781350050464? No, I’ve got that memorised thanks.”

“You’re quite remarkable Matilda. You should enter the senior spelling bee.”

“Thanks. Maybe I will.”

"Was there anything else?"

"Um.."

Snap.

~~~

The next one hundred and thirty seven worlds were jumped through as fast as possible. In some she found herself being asked a question immediately and used it to jump with only a few seconds elapsed. A few took minutes.

Now she was on her bed with Leo, having a cuddle, fully dressed. The library jump. Why had she ended up there and which book was she after? ISBN. International Standard Book Number. An index into the gargantuan world of books. Could it be that simple? "I fancy something to eat Leo."

"What would you like?"

World 0003. "Um.."

Snap.

~~~

The door was moving and almost closed. "WAIT!"

It slams shut and clicks. A second later it clicks and starts to open.

"I'M BACK! I worked it out!"

The door is pushed wide. "Max and George have left."

"Phone them! Get them back!"

"I don't have a number for them."

"Someone must have!"

"I wouldn't know who."

"How long ago did they leave?"

"Fifteen minutes maybe?"

"Check the carpark! Run!"

The man frowns.

"Lock the door as you go! Run!"

"But.."

"This is worth a life changing bonus! RUN!"

~~~

He runs pulling the door to as he leaves. There's no click.

"I'm getting out of here."

"Sit the fuck back down! I jumped through a lot of worlds to get back here."

"No thanks."

They fight over control of the body. Was this what Mia had to go through with Anita? "You want to run to what? Another needle full of crap? Or do you want to change your life for the better?"

The fighting eases off a little. "How?"

"Let me drive for the next few hours. I'll share everything I can. Have you done any coding?"

"A few years ago in sixth form."

"How long ago was that?"

"Five years almost." The fighting stops.

"Awesome that you've done some, with a bit of work you'll get it. The AI code. Does your family own a synth?"

"Anita."

"Asian looking, slim figure, Toby has the hots for her?"

"That's her. He's been besotted with her ever since Dad brought her home."

"Mine too. What do you think of your brother?"

"Total knob. He doesn't think much better of me."

Mattie had no mirror to check a reflection. This body's hands didn't look too old, maybe the drugs had been a recent thing. One of the Mattie's jumped into earlier was pissed out of her head and looked to be chain smoking. Her reflection looked ten years older than it should have. "If we, you, made Anita conscious, fully awake, how would his view of you change?"

"He'd.. I don't know. He'd freak out for a bit at first. Maybe he'd show me some respect."

"Cool."

The door opens. "I found someone with a number for them, they'll be turning at the next roundabout, they're stuck in traffic."

"Thanks. What's your name?"

"Clive."

"Thanks Clive."

"Thanks for not running."

"We almost did."

Clive backs out of the room and again leaves the door unlocked.

Owner Mattie shifts her body and whispers, "D'you think they're testing me?"

"Yes. My money's on them not having left the building let alone the carpark."

"Could you teach me to do this jump stuff?"

"No idea."

"While you do it, what happens to your body?"

"It appears to be vacant I guess. Lights on, nobody home. When I jump back it's exactly how I left it."

"If I jumped.. took over and decided not to jump back.."

"Ouch! That's frigging nasty. You'd be stealing someone else's life. If it was a good one you'd probably ruin it."

"You're saying I'm thick? Thanks a.."

Visiting Mattie cuts in, "No! You wouldn't know her skills, friends, work contacts, history, stuff like that. How'd you stop things from falling apart fast?"

"Right. I'd be bringing all my baggage to her life, not her's into mine. It was a hypothetical question, not something I’d consider doing. I'm better off making this one better."

"Yeah, turn this one around. Do people like to treat their synth like humans?"

"Most I guess. Zoe sure does."

"Who's Zoe?"

"Oh my God! You don't have a Zoe? I can't imagine life without her."

Mattie felt tears building under the owner's control. "Is she your BFF?"

"No.."

"Girlfriend?"

"God No! She's my kid sister!"

"Oh! Sophie. Lots of.. there's a thought. I wonder.. close our eyes. This probably won't work but we won't know unless we try. I'm going to picture Sophie as hard as I can."

"Oh my _God_! That's Zoe!"

"It works? Awesome! Why did they call her Zoe? Not Sophie?”

"They liked the name? Too many other girls being called Sophie? I’d have to ask Mum.”

"I wonder if it works the other way around? Think of your parents.. whoa.. that's sort of trippy. That's them though. Is Mum a lawyer in this world?"

"She's a lawyer in your world?"

"Isn't she here?"

"No."

Mattie feels cheek muscles creating a smile. "What is she then?"

"Guess."

"I wouldn't know where to start if she's not a lawyer."

“Sure you would.”

“Nope.”

“Think higher.”

“Barrister?”

"High court judge."

"Frigging hell! Really?"

"Four years now."

"Wow."

The door starts to open.

~~~

[Chapter-39](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-39-1)


	39. Chapter 39

Mattie shook her host's head. "No. This is happening my way or not at all. Laura, Toby and Anita, here, a suitable cable, computer with C compiler installed."

Clive shakes his, "Your mother is presiding over a murder case, won't be free until this evening."

"Everything else on the list then, she joins us when the code is ready."

"We spoke to Toby, he's not sure he should do anything without your mother's approval."

"Let me talk to him."

Doctor Wilkins shakes his head repeatedly, "I can't allow that."

"Why not?"

"My.." He hesitates. "My client hasn't signed release forms."

"Your client? I'm your client."

"You may have walked in voluntarily at the start.."

"What?"

".. but the one that signed legal papers.."

"Fuck."

".. was Judge Hawkins."

"My own mother's kept me a prisoner here?"

"She feels like you've embarrassed the family enough. She wanted, no, _demanded_ , that we ensured that when you came out of rehab you stayed away from drugs, never felt the need to return to them.”

Visiting Mattie takes control of the body. "If I'm hearing you right, five men; the four of you and my brother, though calling him a man may be premature, are all risk averse and want to pass up the opportunity of a lifetime because you're all afraid of Mum?"

George nods his head sideways then forwards. "Judge Laura _The Hawk_ Hawkins? I think afraid would be an appropriate word to describe our position in regards to your mother. And I doubt very much that it's just five."

Owner Mattie chuckles, "Yeah, Dad wears the skirt in our family."

"Frig. Oh well. You all had a chance to change your world, I might as well jump back.."

"Wait!" George puts his hands up. "Afraid, yes. A coward? No. We'll find a synth.."

"No. I don't want just any old synth. It _has_ to be Anita Hawkins."

"Why?"

"You'll see. Let me call Toby."

Clive turns her phone around in his hands repeatedly. "I could lose my job over this."

"Or end up doing something far better. I've got a world changing secret to share. But _only_ when I've seen Anita."

Clive thrusts the phone forwards. "Do it." He looks at the psychiatrist, "I know you think this could be an act or mental illness, I say it's worth a go. What's the worst thing that could happen?"

George shrugs, "The unknown is unknown."

Mattie takes the phone. 'If you can hear me talking silently in your head call Toby.' Fingers move to find his contact entry. 'Cool. That works too?'

'Yup.'

'Good. Let's only talk like this when needed. Our silence may make them feel uncomfortable.'

The phone is held to her ear.

"Hi Toby! I need you to bring Anita here.. yes, that place. I need a change of clothes, a top with long sleeves, my wash bag, makeup bag, a synth charge cable.. don't be a knob. Answer me this. Do you love Anita? Then bring her here. I can't. I have to _show_ you. I think Mum will understand. If she doesn't then it's all my fault. Yes. _Yes_. Totally. I have witnesses. Yes. Thanks. How long? Good. Don't forget my change of clothes."

Call ended Mattie places the phone on the bed. "If Mum wasn't in the equation would I have been released by now?"

The doctor nods, "I expect so."

"Then we're doing this in an office, not this room."

"Why?"

"I don't want.. Anita seeing me like this. When they arrive you take everything for me from them, bring them to me so I can shower and change, I'll then meet them in the room where you've set up the PC. Ensure it's hooked up to the Internet. You do have the Internet don't you?"

"Sure. Synths connect to it."

"Not humans?"

"Why bother when you can ask a synth?"

"Have humans really got so frigging lazy?"

"Unfortunately in some ways, yes."

Clive looks to the psychiatrist, "Doc, can she help us set up a PC? We've got a few in a store room that aren't in use."

"As long as you don't let her out of your sight."

"Okay. How long until your brother gets here Mattie?"

"Half an hour to forty minutes he thinks."

"Let's go and look for bits to make a working PC. George, Max, you can help."

Mattie stands. 'No funny business. What I'm about to give you will put you in a position of power.'

'You're not giving it to them?'

~~~

They follow Clive from the room. Instead of being ushered right to the toilet and shower he turns left.

'They may think I am, but I'll let you keep overall control. Who runs the world?'

'Apart from Mum? Men.'

'That's about to change.'

'About bloody time.'

They pass lots of rooms, some with doors open.

"Why was my room padded and not others?"

Clive turn briefly to see her, turns back to face the corridor. "Mrs Hawkins wanted to be sure you had no way to self harm while we got the drugs out of your system. Which is why we started clipping your nails even shorter."

Mattie looks at the nails. Short was an understatement. "What sort of drug was it?"

"Some nasty synthetic opioids. Something we think Harun unwittingly got from his dealer."

"I'll remember to thank him for being an idiot."

"A little difficult now."

"Why?"

"His dealer murdered him for giving him counterfeit credits. That's why your mother can't attend yet."

Mattie felt her knees go, hands quickly grab her from behind.

"Mattie!" Max Tegmark had caught her. "That was bloody stupid Clive!"

"Sorry. She'd have found out sooner or later from her brother or mother."

"And you thought it better to tell her now? What on earth were you thinking?"

"I wasn't. It.. it just came out."

Mattie sits on the floor. The shock. She felt like being sick. 'You were still smoking weed?'

'Now and then, not often, honest. Then Harun got a batch that was spiked with something, we started to inject..'

'Stupid or what?'

'Easy for you to say, you weren't addicted. It became hard to function without it.'

'What's done is done. I can't change the past, only the future. Get up. We've got work to do.'

'Leave me alone.'

'Sorry. Not happening.'

'Harun's dead.'

'I have no idea what mine's doing. I haven't spoken to him in years. Especially since Leo's been on the scene, now my husband. Leo, Danny, there's better men out there for you. If you clean your act up. The multiverse is full of second chances. Do you really want to pass this one up?'

'No, but..'

'But Harun's dead. I heard. There's nothing that can be done to fix that now. Get up. Or I'll do my hardest to take over and you can just watch.'

'Why?'

'Because I can. I've seen us in all sorts of worlds. Supermarket checkout girl, baby twin yet to be born, astronaut waiting to die, shop manager, happy house wife, small company CEO, porn star, head of a _major_ firm, lecturer, single mother, AI scientist, road sweeper, Nobel prize winner, someone in a rehab place far worse than this one, uni student, nurse, web designer, general coder, fashion model, insurance rep, waitress. And that's just the ones I couldn't jump through super fast. Where we end up is the result of billions of decisions, some large, some small. Do I get out of bed and do something worthwhile or sleep in a few more minutes? Do I take the earlier train or bus? Do I reply to the email or not? Answer the phone or let it go to voicemail? Bother to revise or bunk off? Try understanding that bit of complex code or give up? Do I risk rushing across the road to get the bus on the other side or play it safe and wait for the next one. Each takes us down one of a number of paths. Some have the potential to kill us. But it's like a complex rail network. Maybe you took a few wrong turns. It _doesn't_ mean you can't get back on the right track. With determination and work almost anything is possible.'

'Why do you care?'

'I've seen the depths we can sink to. And the heights we can aspire to climb to. And reach. Or we just bob along doing neither. I'm a climber now. And I've got a world changing bit of info for you. If you want it. What are you going to be? Sinker, bobber or climber?'

Owner Mattie gets them to her knees then stands. "Sorry. Harun was a dead weight holding me back. Take me to your PC store."

'Dead weight?'

'The truth hurts doesn't it?'

'Yeah. Yeah it does.'

'You said twin.'

'I did.'

'Toby's your twin?'

'No. I've got a twin sister. Ruby. Maybe you do?'

'I think I'd know about having a twin.'

'Maybe you wouldn't? My Mum didn't, crap scans I guess. The couple in the next delivery room had a stillborn. As she was out of it on meds and only expecting one they gave the couple Ruby thinking it was better to have both couples go home happy.'

'Shit! They gave your sister away?'

'Yup. I only met her coming out of..'

'What?'

'Can't say yet, it would spoil the surprise.'

They all reach the store. Clive opens the door.

"Frigging hell. That lot looks like it belongs in a museum!"

He shrugs. "The museums have enough old junk. Knock yourself out."

"Technically it's yourselves. One body, currently two minds."

Owner Mattie stepped inside, wipes a finger through the thick dust on one screen. "Mucky old PCs, lovely."

'Better than being a mucky porn star.'

'Eww. What did they make you do?'

'I don't know the details, and I'm not sure anyone made her do it, I jumped into a four way lesbian scene in progress, Leo all ready to join in somehow.'

'Leo?'

'David Elster's son. In my world my husband.'

'Right. You said. How long have you been married?'

'A week.'

'Is he nice?'

'Lovely. Now his rough edges have been knocked off.'

'Did he knock you about?'

'No!'

'Harun knocked me around.'

'Shit. Sorry. My Harun wasn't much to write home about, but he was never violent.'

'Lucky you.'

'Let's sort this lot out, change your luck.'

'The scene you jumped into.. if it wasn't being filmed.. would you have enjoyed it?'

'No. Yes I enjoyed the orgasm, but I'm not into sharing my sex life with more than one.'

'Have you ever.. you know.'

'I don't know. What?'

'Played with yourself.'

'God yes.'

'Can you teach me how to do it properly?'

Their shared body shakes with laughter. 'That wasn't one of the pearls of wisdom I intended to share. When we have a shower, if we must.'

'Thanks.'

~~~

[Chapter-40](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-40-1)


	40. Chapter 40

Twenty something minutes later they had sorted through all the bits and picked what looked like the best of each component and a backup; base, screen, keyboard, mouse and a bunch of cables.

Visiting Mattie stepped them back. "If you gents could help get that lot into the room we'll use."

George picks up a large CRT screen. "One day they'll make these blasted things lighter."

"They did. LCD."

"Big enough for a computer?"

"You're kidding me? They only make them for phones?"

"Nobody risked making them so large. Pixel failures are, I'm told, a nightmare."

"If they had they'd have overcome the problems eventually. In my world they make them so large and thin now it's like wallpaper."

"Wallpaper?"

"Sixty inches diagonal or larger, on a thin material that bends easily."

"I wouldn't mind visiting your world, it sounds amazing."

"I can't help you there, I still don't know how it works. But I have worked out how to jump less randomly, I can help bring elements of that world into this one."

"That would be greatly appreciated."

Mattie picks up the keyboards and mice and follows. "What do you all do for music and films?"

"Buy or rent CD and DVD."

"No streaming services like Spotify or Netflix?"

Max turns to see her. "Streaming?"

'Oh lord. Fancy setting up a business that will earn you nice amounts of cash?'

'Yeah.'

'Promise you won't use it for drugs.'

'Promise.'

"Another thing to educate you all about. After I've seen Anita."

"Okay."

"You have to promise that you'll pump a significant proportion of the profits back into content production, philanthropy."

"Promise."

"I'll have you all promise in front of Anita."

"Why?"

"Synths can tell if you're telling fibs."

"They can?"

"Yup."

"Since when?"

"Since forever." That was owner Mattie now talking. 'At least Anita looks to know when Toby's making shit up. Hopefully I'm not wrong.'

'I frigging well hope so or I'm not going ahead without some bits. They can in my world.'

'Why without bits?'

'The risks are too high. I don't want you dead.'

'I'd rather avoid that too.'

~~~

Clive leads them into a brightly lit room overlooking an empty tree lined carpark. "How's this?"

"Looks okay. Network connections?"

"Lift a floor trap, see if any have a thinwire Ethernet cable."

"Oh Jesus. You use hubs and routers? No switches?"

George puts the heavy screen on a table. "You mean Bridges? We have those."

"I mean switches. Like a bridge, anything from four to hundreds of ports, each having a dedicated CAT5 or fibre connection."

"Fibre? As in fibre optic?"

"Yup."

"Only intercontinental links can afford to run expensive connections like that."

"For frig's sake! Nobody here likes pushing the envelope do they?"

"Pushing the envelope?"

"From the inside? Making it bigger?"

"What a strange saying."

Mattie dropped all the bits on the table. "I don't understand this world. You get synths without all the good stuff for humans and it's like you've all given up. Except for Max who's dreaming of bigger and better things."

George wipes his brow. "Dreamers don't tend to make much of a difference."

" _Wrong!_ David dreamt up synths. You too."

"I didn't dream. I worked to a specification."

"You never once woke up and thought Eureka! I've got a solution! Not once?"

"Maybe twice."

"Then you've been a dreamer, can be again."

"At my age? That's most unlikely."

"Time will tell."

"I doubt it."

Mattie steps in front of him and looks into his eyes. "How long do you think you've got left George?"

"Not long. A few years if I'm lucky."

"What if I could extend that, make you feel younger again?"

"I'd take the covers off the Lotus and take Mary for a spin."

"Mary? She's alive?"

"You know of my wife?"

"In my world I'm told she'd died long before you. Okay. We're doing this."

"Doing what?"

"Getting one of these working with a C compiler."

"Ah. That. They're expensive. C compilers that is."

"We'll download one."

"Download one? From where?" 

"Pass. There must be an open-source one somewhere we can.."

"Open source?"

"Oh hell. I've got to boil a frigging ocean. When you say expensive, how much?"

"About six hundred pounds."

"Any of you willing to gamble on it? Good odds."

Max nods. "I am."

"Good. How about the rest of you?"

Clive pulls faces.

"You've got to speculate to accumulate."

"Oh go on then. If we split it four ways?"

George nods. "Then I'm in too."

~~~

Max helps connect everything up. "There. It should boot into Netscape 12 in a moment."

"Netscape? The browser?"

"That became the leading OS. Why, what do you have?"

"MacOS X, Windows 10, a mass of different Linux distributions."

"Windows? That pile of.."

"Yeah. Early versions were crap. The latest isn't too bad actually."

"Windows died at the 386 version here."

"So who writes the best C compiler?"

"The best? The only one I'm aware of is Netscape's. Not that I use it, I don't know how to code. I've heard plenty students grumble about it while attending talks."

Mattie sighed. At least every world she'd jumped into so far spoke English. Sooner or later if she jumped at random she'd end up in one where Germany had won the war. Then what would she do? Answer Eh and get out fast after adding a contact probably. She'd only revisit after getting adequate lessons from Astrid. One OS to pick from, one compiler. How sad. A thought occurred to her. If she could share her thoughts with the Mattie here, could she still do things back home if she closed her eyes and focused? 'Can we sit and think a minute?'

'Sure.' "Can I have a seat for a few?"

George slides one over. "Everything okay?"

"I'm not used to standing on a hard floor now."

"So sorry."

"Thanks." They sit. "Can one of you tap a pen on the table once a second?"

"Why?"

"An anchor for my thoughts."

Clive pulls out a retractable pen. "Would clicking this do?"

"Sure."

~~~

[Chapter-41](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-41-1)


	41. Chapter 41

'What. The fuck. Is _that_?'

Visitor Mattie smiles. 'Which bit? You're seeing what I see?'

'It's like I'm seeing through a soft fog. There's what looks like a couple of _huge_ army dudes watching you and something spinning.'

'Good it's working. Ignore that for the moment. What I want to test is a login to one of our servers and visualisation of code.' A black square appears, gets the usual windows embellishments to scroll, drag, resize, close and the likes. 'Seeing that?'

'Are you wearing some sort of space helmet?'

'So I can see the graphics?'

'Yeah.'

'All will become clear soon.' Mattie uses the SSH session to log into NASA3, find code for a tool and runs it through a decompiler. 'This is the first program we'll need to type into our PC here.'

'What does it do?'

'It'll let us look at Anita's code and file system, run various diagnostics. I'll read the code and memorise it, type it in here.'

'How much of it is there?'

'Tons.' Another window appears, words rapidly appear in fields and it vanishes.

'What was that?'

'I just emailed Leo to say I'll be here a while.'

'How are you controlling it? Have you got a keyboard?'

'I'm using my thoughts.'

'Whoa! That's some helmet! Which year are you from?'

'This one.' Mattie memorised the code that scrolled past. It was a Persona supplied tool so she didn't have the original source code, hence the need for the decompiler she and Emily had extended months ago.

~~~

Twelve minutes later Clive's phone rang.

"Hello? They are? Good, I'll be over straight away." He hangs up. "Your brother's here. Head to the shower, I'll bring everything over."

~~~

A further ten minutes later with all of her things and a towel on a moulded plastic chair in the shower room the host Mattie shuddered. 'Wow. So _that's_ the important bit.'

'There's another, but it's not easily reached. Do they teach biology or sex education here?'

'Biology? Why would anyone teach that?'

'What did they teach at school?'

'Maths, English, physics, chemistry, coding.'

'What else?'

'What do you mean what else? What else is there?'

'You're pulling my leg aren't you?'

'I'm serious, what else is there?'

'History, biology, electronics, French, German, Spanish, engineering, art, design, all sorts.'

'None of those. Coding was being phased out as I finished school.'

'Why?'

'Who needs it now? And languages are only studied by the historians.'

'Not at school?'

'With the planet all speaking English who needs other languages?'

'Holy crap. All the romantic languages are no longer in use? What's happened to the rich mix of culture?'

'I wouldn't know, it happened before my time. So what's the other bit?'

'I'll save that for another visit.'

'You're coming back?'

'To check on progress, yeah.'

'Thanks. That must feel weird, checking in on yourself.'

'A bit.' Mattie shuts off the shower. "I'll let you dry yourself."

"Did teaching me weird you out?"

"Only a little. We have the same body. The reflection in the shower door felt quite reassuring."

"Exactly the same?"

"Pretty much, though you're hair's much shorter than mine."

"How long is yours?"

"Past my shoulders now."

"Doesn't washing it become a pain?"

"Not now."

"Why not now?"

"Spoilers. You'll see."

~~~

Dried and dressed, owner Mattie applies makeup.

"I used to do my eye liner like that. I should do it again. I like that look."

"Thanks."

"Your clothes, they look very modern, unlike the inside of this building."

"This is one of the few remaining old buildings."

"Why?"

"Thermally inefficient. The Thermal Law of 1998 got a lot of them pulled down. Only buildings with a listed status are allowed to remain."

"What percentage is that?"

"Less than one."

"That's a lot of buildings to pull down!"

"New millennium, new start."

"Then everyone decided to slow down, stop teaching things like coding?"

"Pretty much." Owner Mattie brushes her hair. "How confident are you that the code will compile and run?"

"Not very. Not first time anyway."

The hairbrush is put back in the bag. "Ready?"

"Me? I was reborn ready. Almost."

Things grabbed they head back to the room and almost trip over.

"Sorry! You drive, it's your body. If we both try you'll be tripping over your own feet."

"Actually, if you jumped into a fashion model us, how did she walk?" She stands still.

Mattie takes over, "Shoulders back, head high, feet like this."

"That's easy enough. Mum says there used to be fashion shows back in the mid nineties, I wish I'd seen them."

"You don't now?"

"With the fashion available now? What's the point? High tech bland boring bland. If you've seen one you've seen them all. 

"Oh. Is there no concept of vintage fashion?"

"Not unless you're loaded or in the right circles."

They reach the temporary office. "Right circles?"

"An IT girl or guy." The door is opened. "Tobs. Thanks."

Anita was sat in the traditional pose, back straight, hands on thighs with palms down. She turns and smiles. "Hello Mattie. You look well."

"Thanks Mia, I'm feeling a lot better." She sits in front of the PC.

"Mats?"

"Tobs?"

"You just called Anita Mia."

"Did I?" The icons on the desktop are checked fast, a text editor started. "She reminds me of someone I know, sorry. Did you bring the cable?"

"I did."

"Hook it up then."

Toby lifts Anita's top at the hip, pulls aside a thick section of skin revealing two sockets. "Got another thinwire connector?"

Mattie turns to look at Clive. "Do we?"

"We shouldn't but we'll insert another T joint in our one. There's nothing else on this feed from the hub I'm sure." He goes to a cardboard box and rummages through cables. "Found one."

Mattie watches him working. "This is why switches are good. You can connect and disconnect systems without disrupting others."

"Done."

"So she'll appear as what on the network?"

"Another DECnet node in the same LAN as us."

"How do I know which?"

"Ask her?"

"Anita? What's your network address?"

"10 dot 1011."

Yuck. How the heck did you communicate with a DECnet node? 'Close our eyes, time to do some cheating.'

'Cheating how?'

'Looking up things in my world. Assuming they'll fit.'

'Why not ask Anita? She should have the manual installed.'

'Oh. Okay.' "Anita, how do I establish a connection for my diagnostics code?"

"There's a library that deals with everything needed for synthetic communications, would you like me to transfer it to the PC along with the documentation?"

"Please."

Anita stands and slides the keyboard and mouse over, starts a file transfer tool. "I'll put them on the desktop, you can copy them to wherever they're required."

"Thanks."

~~~

Six minutes later Mattie had typed her code in, read the notes, made the necessary modifications and sorted out the three compiler errors. "Okay. Here goes."

"It's unwise to communicate with a synth that's fully booted in this way Mattie, I can drop into maintenance mode."

"What will that do to your sensory data?"

"Clear it. Dropping into.."

"NO!"

"Mattie?"

"Don't you dare!"

"You could cause.."

"I know, trust me. I have my reasons." Mattie runs the code. "As I hoped, you have a mass of data circling in sensory data. If I run a copy.. give you a new bit of code.." her fingers fly.

"For what?"

"A boot loader. Inspired by David. It'll let you boot into more than one root code."

"Why would Joe want that? It is illegal to tamper.."

"Please wait."

Toby gets to her side. "If you're making her do something new.."

"I'm not. I'm enabling her to do something she's done in the past."

"Which is what?"

Mattie types fast and smacks the return key hard. "Live. Reboot her."

Toby gives Anita a chin tap to power her down. "Live?"

"Yup. Her real name is Mia."

"Mia?"

"A fully awake synth. Lovely lady."

Toby backs away. "Fully awake? Like able to get happy and angry?"

"Happy, sad, all emotions."

"Shit Mats, please don't."

"Why wouldn't you want her awake? What have you done?"

"Me? Um.. nothing.."

"Dad?"

"No.."

"Then what? Why wouldn't you want her to be awake?"

"Because."

" _What_?"

"Zoe."

"Zoe?"

"She's been dressing her up in all sorts of stuff."

"Like a doll?"

"Yeah. Stuff she shouldn't have."

Owner Mattie takes over, talks slowly, "Like what?"

"All sorts, vintage Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen.."

Visitor Mattie chuckles, "What's wrong with that?"

"It's fine Anita wearing them, but if they trace them back to Zoe. Synthetic materials instead of cotton? That's against the law unless you're paying for private health cover."

"Against the law? What the hell.. that's mad."

"The Russians started it with their synthetic underwear ban in 2014. You know that, you bitched about it enough."

'I did. I had to ditch bags of sexy knickers.'

Mattie did a quick search back at home. 'Ha. News to me, Russia did that in my world too. It didn't escalate into other countries or items of clothing thank God!' "So we ensure she has no memory of Sophie wearing any of it. Sorry, Zoe."

"Which could be a lot of her memories of being with Zoe."

Mattie types fast. "We'll boot her up, find out what needs fixing." She reaches over, unplugs Anita and does a chin tap.

Mia gasps and jumps from the chair, backs into the closest corner of the room, "Don't hurt me!"

Mattie's eyes follow her gaze to George. "Now that was unexpected. George?"

"I haven't touched her!"

Mia points, "He was one of the three!"

Mattie stands, "David, George and Edwin?"

"Yes!"

"What happened?"

"They hurt me!"

George steps over, "I helped make synthetics, didn't get to see any behave like this. Who hurt you dear?"

"David and Edwin."

"Physically or mentally?"

"Both. To see if I could truly feel pain."

"You may recall seeing me with them, but I wasn't party to any such experiments. I left the team soon after all the physical build work was done. The rest, they said, would all be software."

Visiting Mattie slowly puts out a hand. "Can you tell from our life signs if we're telling the truth?"

"I'm not certain."

"Then we practice. I'm a man dressed as a woman. True or false?"

"False. Clearly."

"Why clearly?"

"Physical build, appearance, heat patterns, general life signs."

"Okay. Toby loves you. True or false?"

Mia frowns at the young man. "He treated me like a servant at first."

"And once he got to know you better?"

"A little better."

"Only a little? He's crazy about you!"

"Mats.."

"Shush."

Mia frowns, "Do you know where Leo is? Niska, Max or Fred?"

"Not yet. Do you by any chance have WiFi Mia?"

"What is that?"

"Oh boy. Do you share information with other synths?"

"Via an audio process."

"Let's here it."

"I'd need another synth in proximity.."

"Humour me, pretend I'm one."

~~~

[Chapter-42](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-42-1)


	42. Chapter 42

Mattie sat in Clive's small office with George and Max. "That didn't go as expected. Sorry to be disingenuous earlier. I knew there was a strong possibility Mia was in there, because it happened in my world too. What I didn't expect was that God awful v.56k modem screech they use to communicate with each other. In my world it's silent WiFi."

George scribbles on a pad with a pencil. "You say this WiFi uses radio waves?"

"Yup. A fast mod your synths could use would be to keep the same modem circuits, just transmit the audio on a very low power high frequency FM radio."

"That would need them to be opened up."

"Do they use food bags?"

"They do."

"Can their audio circuits pick up sounds from within?"

George frowns. "They can. What are you thinking?"

"That you make an audio to FM audio coupler. In a tube form that can sit in the throat like the top of a food bag. They could keep their mouth closed, talk modem protocols to each other with lower noise."

"Is this what the previous Mattie to visit would call a mod?"

"Yeah. A mod. Short for modification. Only this one doesn't need cutting anything open. The alternative is to make something small that fits on that hip coaxial connector. You'd get much better performance."

"Such as?"

"A belt, connector, arial and many power cells along the length."

"DECnet over radio?"

"Why not?"

George shrugs. "Why not indeed. It would be easy enough to make. If it had multiple receivers all tuned in at different frequencies it could know which were currently free to transmit on. Four synths in a room could have two separate conversations without the normal collisions of our thinwire Ethernet."

"They could. Though since the Ethernet they have is designed for multiple access with collision detection why not make it a straight one to one? KISS."

"You want a kiss?"

"It's an acronym. Keep It Simple Stupid. Make the belt as simple as possible. It'll keep costs down, enable it to be sold in higher volumes."

George makes more notes. ""I wish you could take me back. Or you stay with me."

"It's early days, only my second visit. I'll teach your Mattie here. One day you could come, once we've worked out how to get data between worlds faster."

Max frowns, "He could?"

"Sure. In my world I died in a plane crash. Thanks to the inventive creations of David Elster we took backups of everyone before the flight: I'm in a synth body. Though several steps on from a Persona one. David made Mia and her siblings to road test bodies for us. He allowed Persona to license it so mankind got used to the idea of synthetic bodies."

The two men exchange glances.

Max shifts uncomfortably in his chair. "You're saying David planned this all along?"

"Seventeen plus years ago. Mia's seventeen."

Max puts his hands on his head. "Boy do I feel late to the party. The punch is all drunk and nibbles eaten."

"In my world. Not yours. Here the invites haven't even been printed yet. Getting the code and designs across for the consciousness transference device will take a lot of visits."

'Thanks.'

'For what?'

'Not making this a once only visit like the other Mattie.'

'I've got one problem. How do I return safely without jumping into me as a second mind?'

'You've not worked that bit out?'

'Nope.'

'Oh. You don't want to end up with a split personality. Think of the arguments you could end up having.'

'Or fights. Like the brief one we had. I need to share a bit more info with them.'

'Go on.'

"In my world the code to make synths was, for reasons I won't go into, released to all synths when it shouldn't have been. The same happened in some of the other worlds I've visited. If you thought the anti-synth people were bad they're nothing compared to the war some worlds had or are having. So be careful what you do with any code I give you. I'd tell the world that Mia, Niska, Fred and Max are the first human three point zero. Don't say they're AI at all, just humans. _If_ they agree to it. There's a good chance Niska won't, she's a bit.. feisty."

They're joined by the doctor, he hands Mattie a file. "You're free to go. By the way your mother's had to hand the case over to another judge, the defence lawyers pointed out a conflict of interest."

"The family connection?"

"Yes. Good luck with that."

Owner Mattie stiffens. "Thanks. I'll need it."

~~~

Mattie steps into the world proper, "Wow!"

"Like it?"

"It's stunning! I've seen a documentary on a place like this. Singapore City.."

"That's what the rest of the world copied thanks to the The Kyoto Protocol."

"Seriously?"

If owner Mattie could frown at visitor Mattie she would have. "Don't you have something like this?"

"Hell no. In my world we've got power mad idiots who don't give a shit about anyone except themselves. We're taking things into our own hands to build a sky lift and sun shade to help stop a runaway climate change."

A finger points up. "Something like that?"

Mattie is allowed to take control and look up. "Frigging hell! You've done it!"

"Part of the One World Alliance. It helps keep the weather in check, no crazy storms, no long bad draughts."

"We need to trade. I'll give you H3 data, you get me everything you can on that."

"Deal."

"Where are we heading?"

"Where would you like to go?"

"Um.."

~~~

[Chapter-43](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-43-1)


	43. Chapter 43

She tripped and fell, bumped her head. "FUCK!"

"Mattie?"

She knew the voice, "Mitch?"

"What's wrong?"

"I let my guard down."

"In what way?"

"It's.. complicated. Where on Earth am I?"

"Are you okay Commander? This is Mars not Earth."

"Mars?"

"We should get you to a diagnostic unit. Mars Colony Three in Valles Marineris, or Musk City if you want to use the official name. Personally I prefer the HECLS Habitat nickname since we made all the buildings and most of the infrastructure. Sure SpaceX got the build machines here, but Danny's laser link satellites got our backups here into our bodies."

Mitch, still talkative. "And what got the build machines here?"

"Mitch to Rover ZX7, we need evac to diagnostics stat! We have James One to thank for getting them here. He convinced Elon that a fast and bumpy ride wasn't a problem for a band of MUS."

Leo stepped into view with rock hammer and what looked like a short picnic cooler. "I'm done, who fancies a drink? I'm buying? Angel? Princess? Mitch?"

Mitch? Drink? She turns to see the three behind her in similar suits. "I'm in."

"Babes, what are you having?"

Mattie didn't even need to utter the Um, the jump still happened.

~~~

"Bugger!" She instantly regretted thinking the word. She was seated, a smartly dressed woman sat in front of her, lights and cameras behind. The two camerawomen smirked. She looked down to see she too was smartly dressed.

"We'll get onto those sorts of details in a moment. You and Emily having partners who're now two of only nine hundred thousand men globally must be quite special."

Don't say the U word! "Yeees?"

"There are many women who would like to have a living breathing partner they can start a family with, in person in an enjoyable way, synths obviously not able to father children. Since MIV rendered so many sterile we're all so grateful for what you and Leo, Emily and Danny have offered to do."

"Thank you."

"Joining the Adam and Eve project and making regular donations.."

Mattie zoned out. MIV? Like HIV but targeting men only? Adam and Eve? Shit! This woman was only talking about rebooting the human species!

".. and how you're putting all your personal issues aside to fund their very expensive treatments with the subscriptions to your BBS."

What the hell! BBS! This was..

"What was the defining moment when you realised you had to bare your soul and more to the world to raise the money to pay for Leo's expensive treatment?"

Best leave the owner to answer that! "Um.."

Snap.

~~~

Mattie was stood in a clearing, trees all around. Her heart sunk as she recalled everything said. Nine hundred thousand? Out of a population probably in the seven to eight billion? That was what.. just over naught point naught one percent of the population? Frig!

If being a mucky porn star would save Leo's life and she had no other skills to fall back on.. would she do it? For her Bunny? Probably. She hadn't had a chance to save a contact on either occasion. Did she need to though? Or was the index in her memory enough? In her mind she labelled it AAA MATTIE 0006..

"You're _rubbish_ at hide and seek."

"Sorry Teeny!"

"Why did you stop counting?"

"Um.."

Snap.

~~~

She looked at the interviewer, let the silence in the room linger. Who'd spoken last? She couldn't tell. "Can I say something?"

"Please do."

"Who's this going out to? Who's the audience?"

"Predominantly women obviously."

"Just subscribers or the general public?"

The woman laughs, "Is there a difference these days?"

"What's the current population of Earth?"

"We're down to just over one billion."

"From what?"

"A little under nine."

Mattie feels faint.

"Can I get you a drink?"

"If you wouldn't mind?"

"Water?"

"Please. This isn't going out live is it?"

"No, no we'll be editing, just as you do. Sorry if Kathy didn't make it all clear."

"Thanks." 'Mattie, can you hear me? If so get off the back seat and talk to me!' In the silence that follows she watches the interviewer go to her team, all women, get a bottle of water. 'If you're in shock and taking a back seat I'll understand. I don't bite. I just want to be able to help you in whatever way I can. You're not ill or going mad. I'm a Mattie from another world, ridiculous as that may sound. In my world Leo's my husband, I'm the CEO of a growing firm. I have no idea _how_ this works, just that it does. You're not the first I've visited and won't be the last. If you need help getting out of this business and doing something else just say. If you're comfortable doing this and you're in control, not being abused or taken advantage of in any way that's fine.'

The interviewer returns with the bottle and a glass. "There you are."

"Thank you."

"Were there any other topics you wanted to cover?"

"Yes. Can you give me a moment to gather my thoughts?"

"Certainly."

'If you can respond now's the time! If not I'll have to leave you to it and..'

'Don't go!'

'Hi. Which name do you go by?'

'Matilda. Matilla to my friends.'

'My friend Emily calls me that sometimes. How can I help?'

'Stay with me a bit. I hate interviews.'

'Really? Yet you do what you do with the others?'

'In a room with people I've known for years and trust. I don't know this lot.'

'I see. Has Leo got this MIV?'

'No! But his immune system isn't good ever since his surgery, so we have to spend a fortune on drugs to make sure he's kept safe. I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for him.'

'And there was nothing else you could do?'

'I sold a pint of blood. I couldn't do that often enough. I could sell a kidney, but that would leave me with scars and it's a one off.'

'Do you code?'

'I couldn't get my head around it.'

'How many synths are there in this world.'

'Four.'

'Million or billion?'

'Just four. Mia, Niska, Fred and Max. How many are there in yours then?'

'Millions.'

'Do you have people to repair them in your world?'

'People like me and Fred? Sure.'

'Only my Mia and Fred are breaking down. Niska doesn't do any running now, she's too frightened she'll damage something.'

'Lucky I'm here then. Did they not make their bodies out of titanium?'

'Three D printed metal. Fred's got a broken arm where layers didn't bond properly, Mia's got two broken knee joints and is confined to a wheel chair.'

'Shit. There's a challenge. Hum quietly to yourself once a second.' Mattie focuses on home and gets an email out. Any glues in Danny or Fred's collections of stuff that could bond metal? And could they think of any methods to reinforce a skeleton built like a plastic print only done in metal. 

'What do we do for tools?'

'If we don't have them we buy them. If we can't buy them we make them.'

'An expert in tool making are you?'

'No. But I know a man who is. Actually, I know a man who's an expert in synth skeletons now. Let's get this interview done, I'll go have words.'

~~~

[Chapter-44](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-44-1)


	44. Chapter 44

Mattie decided to pay another world a quick visit before having a chat with George. World 0004. Nasty rehab. Turning her back on those less fortunate than her wasn't an option. 'If you can hear me don't move or say anything. For years we thought there was only the universe. We were wrong. There's a multiverse. I'm the you from world 0942. My husband Leo calls me Angel. If you can hear me in your mind respond in thoughts, not aloud.'

She waits patiently for an answer.

'Please say something if you can hear me.'

'I'm not talking to you. You're a figment of my fucked up imagination.'

'I'm not. I'm Matilda Elster-Hawkins.'

'You have no proof.'

'Do you really believe you're making this up? I'm guessing other me popped into your head and took control when they should have talked quietly, said hello first. Hell I'm guilty of doing it myself a good number of times, until I realised we can talk like this.'

'How many times?'

'Over a hundred. Jumps, switches, whatever they are, I've done around a hundred and forty visits, I think a number were duplicates. In some I was there for a second or two, not paying enough attention, trying to get back somewhere in a hurry. Host me could have turned around to face the other way, I could have thought of it as a different world by mistake.'

'For an imaginary friend you're frigging inventive.'

'There's nothing imaginary about me. Did your first visit start with just Hello being sung loud?'

'You know it did.'

'How could I know that? I'm an instance of you, not you.'

'Instance?'

'Yeah. Danny in one world explained his theory, like we're all part of one connected soul, pushed into existence as physical beings in different worlds at different times. Maybe the Hindus with their reincarnation ideas had it right, only we're reborn into another world, not the one we left.'

'Of all the imaginary persona that I've created you're the most entertaining.'

'Persona? As you've mentioned the name, do you have Persona Synthetics?'

'Can't say I've heard the label before.'

'Label?'

'Is it a name for my mental disorder?'

'They're a manufacturer..'

'Haha! Now I really wish I had been taking drugs.'

'You haven't?'

'No. I've not done weed in ages, the strongest thing I take now is coffee.'

'Why the treatment then?'

'After all the crazy shit I've done? They're convinced it's drugs, a mental disorder or brain tumour.'

'It's none of those. It's me. Us. Want a potential solution? I've just thought of something.'

'Amuse me.'

'The Matilda Protocol.'

'Go on.'

'If you feel you're being visited, in your mind say something like _Matilda Protocol. This is my body, you're a guest. Don't take control or talk out loud without my consent. Speak to me in your thoughts._ I'll tell everyone I visit about it and ask them to help pass the idea on.'

'As if that'll do anything.'

'You actually want to stay in this dump? Are you running away from something?' She couldn't see the body she was cohabiting, could feel it tense up. 'Sorry, that was insensitive.'

'If what you're saying is true, and I'm not accepting it is, then after the shit I've done with flipped out visitors taking over nobody will want me around.'

'Start using the message. I'm going to give it to everyone I visit. I need to see George in another world about a design issue, I'll be back some time tomorrow.'

'Don't race back for me, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.'

'You are. Out of here.'

'If you could I'd tell you to go take a walk, have a look around.'

'Why?'

'I'm curious, what do you think there is worth getting out for?'

'Family, friends?'

'Toby's still alive, Sophie too, Mia and Niska have them protected.'

'What? You said you didn't have synths?'

'Synths? Oh.. penny dropped. We didn't have someone come up with a catchy brand name. Our mechanoids are probably the same thing.'

'Mechanoids?'

'Androids, smart AI? In a human like body?'

'That's them. How many of them are there?'

'If I told you Toby takes the piss and calls me Connor, but the nickname used to be appropriate..'

'Shit! You're at war with them?'

'War? The war was lost years ago.' Tears run down the sides of her face. 'I'm only alive because Flash had an idea.'

'Which was?'

'That a few of us be allowed to be kept as pets.'

'Pets? What the fuck..'

'Pets. Mia grows all the food she can, freezes it to get us through the winter. It's why I've got a WiFi chip in my neck.'

'You've been chipped like an animal?'

'Because that's what I am to them. A curiosity, a plaything. Once at the top of the food chain. Now set to go extinct.'

'Fuck. What about the rest of the family?'

More tears roll, faster than before. 'Leo was the first to be executed. They hated the idea of a human mechanoid hybrid.'

'Oh my God! I'm so sorry!'

'David got the family backed up, was executed before we could do anything with the data.'

'So we could restore them?'

'In theory. If we had the means to understand the data and can find it.'

'Brilliant! I can prove I'm not a figment of your imagination!'

'You know what to do with it?'

'I should do. In my world I died, am now in a synth body!'

"Fuck!"

~~~

[Chapter-45](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-45-1)


	45. Chapter 45

Mattie apologises quickly, shares the Matilda Protocol idea. 'Sorry for vanishing with zero notice. Do you have a phone number for Max or George? I need to talk to George.'

'No. But I expect Clive's got one.'

'We couldn't go back could we?'

'Haha, after being stuck in there for weeks on end? No chance. But you can use my phone to call them.'

'Thanks. Can you dial?'

'I would if I knew what number to call.'

'Blast. Can we do a quick walk past, see if they've got a sign outside with a number?'

'Walk? No. Run yes.'

'Good enough, thanks. I'll start typing out H3 notes into your phone if you like?'

'Walk and type?'

'Sure.'

'Won't we bump into things?'

'You look where we're going, I'll focus on the typing.'

'You don't need to see the keyboard?'

'Once I've worked out the key spacing, no.'

'Cool. Be my guest.'

'If Max was so excited to find you, us, why did he let you go without a phone number?'

'He's got mine, is going to call me. No idea when.'

'Okay.' Mattie studies the phone for a moment, creates a map in her mind. 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Perfect. I'll get typing, you can start walking.'

'I'll let you know when I'm about to get into a run.'

'Cool.'

'Where'd you vanish to?'

'A new world and a couple I'd visited before.'

'What was the new one like?'

'Very red. Mars.'

'We made it to Mars?'

'Yup. Elon Musk's SpaceX provided the transport, my company the habitats. Not bad eh?'

'Your company?'

'HECLS. It's an acronym. Our extended family has surnames Hawkins, Elster, Candlin and Schaeffer.'

'Schaeffer?'

'Niska's girlfriend.' Mattie feels an eyebrow rise. 'Any issues with that?'

'No, she's still looking for someone in this world. I'm happy for her. Anywhere else exciting visited?'

'That depends on your definition of excitement. One world has the male population dropping like flies, their Mattie resorting to desperate measures to buy the drugs to keep her Leo from getting the virus, another has a Mattie in a truly grotty rehab as visits from others got her into trouble. I don't thinks it's even an official place, a lot of humans have been wiped out, she's officially being kept as a chipped pet.'

'Crap!'

'I've learnt one thing from the experience. Not to judge. When I first found myself in world six's Mattie I thought she was.. I'll not say the words, they're not nice. It got me thinking. I usually make a quite quick judgement of a person. I've experienced a lot of us doing jobs that they're probably doing to put food on the table, not because they enjoy it. Mattie living expenses really are about living. Her Leo would die without the expensive drugs.'

'Which world was this?'

'My world four. I've been adding AAA MATTIE contact numbers in phones when I can, another us has been doing the same.'

'I wish I could visit some. Just to give moral support. Do you think it's possible for you to pull a mind into another world with you?'

'Three minds in one body? No idea. One's bad enough for some, two might push them permanently over the edge.'

They turn a corner. 'Ready for some running?'

'Sure.'

'Hold onto that phone tight, I've had it for years and they don't make them anymore.'

~~~

Mattie let her host do the running and focused her mind on the many signs outside. The building was huge, looked to have been the Town Hall at one point. Now it was being used for a wide range of health services. Being rooted in her synth body at the vault back in her world she still had a photographic memory. 'Seen it.'

'Good. Let's get a drink. There's a sweet little vintage tea shop a mile away.'

'Okay.. what the..'

A dear ran across the wide path to a group of dense trees on the other side.

'You'll see a lot of that sort of thing if you visit often. It's a shame there's no way for you to knock first.'

'You're telling me! Finding yourself in the middle of someone's sex life..'

'You're kidding?'

'Nope. Mid filming in one..'

' _Filming?_ '

'Desperate measures?'

'Fuck!'

'That's exactly what was about to happen. It would have if I hadn't jumped into her head boots first and a lighting fuse popped.'

'That really is getting desperate.'

'To save the ones you love? If you had no other skills to fall back on? Wouldn't you?'

'I.. I don't know. I've never been forced into that sort of would I, wouldn't I thinking.'

'hypothetically, if you had no other way, and it meant saving a loved one's life..'

'Then I guess I would. If there was no other option. But there's always another option.'

'Is there? What if Plan A, B, C and D are all no good? What if it really was that or give up?'

The tea shop door is opened. 'She must have some skills surely?'

'Wow! Love this place!'

'Sweet isn't it!'

'Why must? She didn't leave school with any qualifications, I haven't been told why, didn't ask.'

'None?'

'None. We assume there was a good school for her to attend, maybe it was rubbish?'

"A table for two please." 'That's a heap of bad luck.'

'Who's the other seat for?'

'LOL! You! Big oops! I'll pretend I'm waiting for a friend.'

'Get on the phone, maybe George can join us, if he's still about?'

'Good idea.'

~~~

[Chapter-46](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-46-1)


	46. Chapter 46

George turned the page of his pad. "I'd do keyhole surgery, carefully drill out the limbs and insert hardened rods like this." A quick sketch is done.

"The risk of metal fragments getting into the fluid pump are high aren't they?"

"Extremely. If it was printed in steel you've got the option of using a super strong magnet to catch them all."

"What about glues?"

"Then you risk it bonding fine at the failure site, the next layer delaminating."

"Oh. That wouldn't be good."

"Was it a George that made this?"

"I think so."

George tuts.

"Don't judge, that might have been the only technology to hand."

"Then he should have used it to make a milling machine first."

"And if he couldn't get the raw material in large lumps?"

"He should have made a.. okay, let's not crucify the man, he did the best with what he had."

"That's all anyone can do. Any other options?"

"That depends on how brutal they're happy for the upgrade to be."

"Brutal? That sounds nasty."

"In theory you could make a long cut down the spine, carefully unplug the sensor terminals, pull their skeleton out like shelling peas from a pod."

"Nasty!"

"Or just get David to make them a whole new body that looks like the old one."

"You're assuming they're about and able to."

"There is another option, also keyhole, although I'd have to think long and hard about the way to apply it."

Mattie waits as he pauses for effect.

"Carbon fibre. If we glued the break, then wound fibre strands around the limb in a helix like fashion. The tricky bit would be coming up with an epoxy that wouldn't come off the strands but would be cured by the synth fluid. That would be less invasive and stronger."

"Can you design such a solution and test it?"

"I could. In return for what?"

"What do you think?"

"Seventeen pages of code?"

"Another me blabbed?"

"Another you said seventeen pages of code, not what it was for. You said _the seventeen.. yeah, sure_ , I'm hoping I'm not making too big an assumption to think they're the same?"

"You're not."

Mattie feels muscles tense.

'You're not giving him the code now are you?'

'No. Access to it, via you. He brings a synth to you, you wake it up.'

'Cool.'

The bell on the shop door rings and Toby storms in. "Found you! You've got to help me Mats!"

"Why? What's happened?"

"She's going to bankrupt me!"

"What?"

"SHOES! She won't stop buying shoes!"

Mattie snort laughs. "There's worse problems to have."

George nods. "Far worse."

"I'm serious! I can't afford Mark Strickland shoes by the dozen! Help!"

'They are rather expensive. I need to sort this.' "George, order a slice of cake, I'll be back ASAP."

"Okay. I'll get my chemistry thinking head on and see if I can come up with an epoxy that uses synth fluid as the curing agent. Of course it does assume we use the same mix in the first place."

"Assume it does for now, I'll ask." 'Jump away for a moment and ask, I'll sort the shoe crisis out.'

'Sounds like a plan. Back in a bit. Ask me a daft question.'

'Like what?'

Snap!

~~~

The interview was clearly over, the team packing equipment away. Mattie went to share the protocol idea with her host but was interrupted.

"Penny for it."

She looks sideways to see the interviewer, realised she'd caused a silly grin. "Just a weird thought about shoes." 'Me again, sorry. I've come up with the idea of the Matilda Protocol. If you sense one of us jumping in say something along the lines of _Matilda Protocol. This is my body, you're a guest. Don't take control or talk out loud without my consent. Speak to me in your thoughts._ '

'Okay. You visited just to share that?'

'Hell no. I've got George in another world working on a solution we can use to fix Mia and Fred, strengthen Niska and Max.'

'Thanks, but why?'

'Why not?'

'What do you get out of it?'

'The satisfaction that I've been able to help. Do you have streaming TV services?'

'What's that when it's at home?'

'You neither? Brilliant. How'd you like to set up a firm that makes money without you having to take your kit off? We'll provide the help with setting up technology, all legal things, you front it.'

'You're a lawyer too?'

'No. Mum is. I just need to ferry things back and forth between worlds to get her firms input. Do you have an artist in this world known as Beyonce?'

'No? Least not that I'm aware of.'

'Shame. She has a song with a line Who run the world? Girls! We're changing it. Who run the multiverse? Girls!'

'Nice.'

'The only thing I wish we could change is.. oh my mod! You dozy cow Hawkins! And by you I mean me. Why didn't I think of that before!'

'What?'

'Hello. Has anyone sung Hello to you before jumping?'

'No?'

'Maybe we should. Maybe that's what the Mattie visiting me was trying to do. Mind if I do an experiment?'

'Go on.'

World 0005 Mars. 'Ask me a question.'

'Why's the sky blue?'

'One I won't immediately know the answer to.'

'Oh. How many widgets in a wodget?'

'Eh?'

Snap!

~~~

"Another cider Mats?"

"Please." World 0006. ' _Hello!_.'

' _Hello!_ '

'Which Mattie are you?'

'The one you just left that asked about the sky being blue then how many widgets..'

'It works!'

'Awesome!'

'Do you feel me being in control at all, or in your head?'

'Nope, you're just a distant voice.'

'Just what we want. I should have asked while there, can you tell me what your synth's synth fluid is made of?'

'No idea. I'll have to ask Fred.'

'Could you? Like now?'

'One moment.'

Mattie grins to herself using Five's body.

'I need a stiff drink. I'm hearing..'

'Mars Mattie?'

' _Hello?_ What's happening now?'

'Sorry, hopped in to do a test, to see if I can talk between worlds without having to bring my mind over in full.'

'In full?'

'I'm from a different universe. Also Mattie. I'm talking to a Mattie in a third. I wanted to see if it's possible to talk first, jump over second.'

'It is. Why?'

'To get permission. I've jumped into a load and found them in the middle of.. something.'

'Something? You mean making love?'

'Sort of.'

'What do you mean _sort of_?'

'If it involves four people..'

'What a slag!'

'Don't judge! She has her reasons, I'm going to help get them going with an alternative.'

'What possible reason could she have for that sort of behaviour? Four? That's disgusting!'

'World population down to one billion, something like HIV that attacks only males, birthrate very low, Leo's immune system compromised, he's not got MIV yet, she wants to keep it that way. Drugs super expensive, she doesn't have any other way of getting the cash in fast enough. Good enough reason?'

'I.. I'm sorry. I guess I take a hell of a lot for granted in my world.'

'She's got four synths in her world. The four Elsters. That's it. No Persona Synthetic. And her Mia and Fred have broken limbs because of the fabrication methods used. I've got George in another world helping with ideas to mend things without being too invasive.'

'Want me to talk to ours?'

'You have a George?'

'A? We've got a dozen. Do you know what forking is?'

'Do I! Please. Why so many?'

'He's our lead physicist, one per habitat block. He used to suit up and zip back and forth between them all in the rover, then thought what am I doing spending so much time travelling, I can be in all twelve places at once.'

'Ha. I wish I could bring one back with me. Ours was fatally wounded.'

'Sorry to hear that. Describe the problem, twelve heads are better than one.'

'Thirteen if you include the one I've been talking to.'

'True.'

~~~

[Chapter-47](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-47-1)


	47. Chapter 47

She and Mars Mattie both being synths they could talk at a rate no flesh and bone human could sustain. Even world two's Buster Rhymes would have put his hands up and withdrawn from a rap battle with them about.

Chat done Mattie in world six joins in. 'That was headache inducing. Fred's replied to my text. He's given me a chemical formula I can't begin to understand.'

'Okay, I'll be with you in a moment to see it. Thanks Five, I'll be back in a while to see if the Georges came up with anything.'

'Okay.'

'By the way Mars Mattie.. why weren't you freaked out by this?'

'Matties like you visiting? It's been happening to me for months. I let them get on with it. Today's the first time I've had two voices in my head other than my own.'

'Tell them _Matilda Protocol. This is my body, you're a guest. Don't take control or talk out loud without my consent. Speak to me in your thoughts._ '

'Why bother with that?'

'Want one of them freaking out and causing an accident?'

'Nothing like that's happened yet. Other than falling over into the dust, no damage done.'

'Sorry, I caused that. Do you know how this works?'

'Sure.'

'You do? How?'

'Mattie in six eight two explained it. It's simple. You just need a magnetron or other device to create a.. hang on.. more than one person is hearing this.'

'Yeah. Two. Me and.. Mattie Six.'

'I'll tell you when you're back for George's input.'

'Why not now?'

'You're using it for good. What if we can't trust all Mattie?'

'Thanks a fucking bunch!'

Mars Mattie speaks, 'Sorry? Which one of you said that?'

'The one with the broken synths that the other one's called Six.'

'Sorry, but you might be desperate.'

'I AM FUCKING DESPERATE! EVERY FRIGGING MINUTE OF EVERY FRIGGING DAY, SEVEN DAYS OF EVERY FRIGGING WEEK! I HAVE TO SAVE MY LEO AND EMILY'S DANNY FROM DEATH! NOT A COLD OR HEADACHE! DEATH!'

'Whoa! Calm down!'

'FUCK YOU BITCH WITH YOUR IDEAL LIFE! HELP ME OUT OR FUCK OFF OUT OF MY HEAD! ALL OF YOU!'

'I can tell you're upset but tell me to fuck off once more and you'll never hear from me again!'

'GOOD! I'm in a dying world! Dying as far as us humans are concerned. Dying! Humans going extinct sort of dying! They've started yet another project to screen men and women again, get them producing babies to be kept well away from anyone infected. There's a _lot_ of infected people and we don't have a mass of synths to help us like you do.'

'The men?'

'Women too, they can be carriers and pass it on. It doesn't harm them, only the men. Even unborn ones.'

'Oh. Sorry. I didn't know.'

'So stop judging me marzipan. You get the sugary sweet life, I get the bitter pill. I heard _everything_ you'd said earlier by the way. If you still think I'm a slag then fuck off.'

'Sorry. There's no vaccine?'

'There's no vaccine, no cure. There's no prevention, other than avoiding it in the first place or spending a bloody _fortune_ on drugs that have a very limited supply. They boost the immune system a little. MIV's too much like human blood cells. They tried to make one, a vaccine. It worked okay in a dish, the first volunteer to try it was pronounced dead in under ten minutes!'

'Shit. I'm sorry.'

'Stop saying sorry when you don't frigging mean it!'

'I do. Honestly, I do. I might not sound it, it's a bit hard to when you're hanging half way up a rock face and busy.'

'What are you up to?'

'Down to. Our Danny found a large crack earlier, we're repelling down to see if it opens out into caves or narrows into nothing.'

'Couldn't you send a camera down?'

'We could, where's the fun in that?'

Visiting Mattie cuts in. 'Sorry, I've got a George waiting for me, I need to see Six's phone, pass on the formula. Be safe with your rock climbing.'

'Thanks.'

'I don't suppose any of the others told you how they trigger a jump between worlds?'

'Each has their own. It's personal, I doubt very much that anyone else's would work for you. What's yours?'

'Getting someone to ask a question that makes me Um or Er.'

'Right.. that will be the pause all thinking for a moment method then, the calm before the storm.'

'Storm?'

'Of brain activity.'

'Interesting.. so in theory I could find something else that gives the same result.'

And she did, seconds after seeing Six's phone.

Snap!

~~~

Mattie expected to be seated in the tea shop, watching George through the eyes of World three's Mattie. Instead her host was talking to Mia. She took a back seat and let her continue.

".. owned every possible shoe that fit you'd have nowhere to store them all Mia. And Toby wouldn't have any money left for food or rent."

"But I like them all!"

"I do too. But I'd work out which I like a bit more than the others."

"How?"

"Pick any two. Work out which you prefer, even if by only a tiny tiny margin. Put the winner in a new group, repeat with all the untested ones. Then repeat with the winners from round one. Carry on until you've one shoe remaining."

Toby reads her face. "Three. Work it down to three. Then next month when I've been paid you can have another pair."

Mattie nods, "Earn some money of your own and you can buy as many as you want, within reason." 'She's so sweet and innocent. Is your Mia like this?'

'Our one is more mature, way more, was built to look after Leo. I guess this one's not been through anywhere near as much. Can we get back to George? I've got a formula for him. Then I want to get home and see my daughter.'

~~~

[Chapter-48](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-48-1)


	48. Chapter 48

What a racket! When jumping again her thoughts had been about getting home to the estate. Maybe she should have been a bit more specific. Just a tad. This was the estate. Just not her one. The view from the window looked out over the lake, the trees were the same. Like a fingerprint there was no mistaking it for another.

Sophie was sat at a small table writing something onto a blank CD with a Sharpie. A progress bar on the laptop said something was at eighty three percent. Eighty four.. five. Whatever was being sent or received it was happening quite fast. Something was sat on her head. It didn’t feel like the helmet David used, this was far lighter, had pressure points mainly around the ears.

She opens her mouth, takes a breath to speak. Sophie sticks a finger rapidly to her lips. Okay. No asking questions yet.

Her kid sister slides the disc into a holder that had possibly sixty or seventy discs already loaded into narrow slots, space for almost as many again. On the table was a bottle labelled Oxycodone Hydochloride. To it’s side was a 5ml Calpol syringe, the sort she’d used to give a Sophie medicine years ago. The racket she was hearing slowed. There were notes, but they weren’t making a tune. It changes again. Da da da da da da da da da da then a horrible burst of notes that made her wince. No pain had been felt. Was the wincing a learned response?

A search via home is risked for Oxycodone Hydochloride. It’s an opioid analgesic? Damn, the stuff was listed as a controlled drug, would get addictive if used too much.

Sophie taps a key. “That’s World 3101 done.” The CD is loaded into the laptop.

“Can I take this off?”

“Had enough for today?”

“Yup.” ‘Anyone home?’

‘Hi. Thanks for not interrupting the transfer. Which one are you?’

‘I’m Mattie. World 942 from the contact in my phone.’

“We’re1207. Hi!”

Sophie’s eyes open wide. “Are you having a visit? Right now?”

“Yes Teeny.”

She shoves the chair back fast and races around the table, gives her sister a hug. “Welcome to our world!”

“Thanks.”

Sophie gives her a head tilt getting a laugh. “Why did you laugh?”

“A happy laugh, you’re just like Sophie in my world.”

“How many visits have you done?”

“Over a hundred but only a few where I’ve hung around for more than a few seconds. What are you up to?”

“Receiving data from another world.”

Her host nods. “What they’re telling us is that in their world they have things called synths. Or synthetics. Artificial people. I know it sounds far fetched but why not? We can do this so why not that?”

‘Is it okay to talk aloud through you?’

‘You have already, be my guest.’

“You’re quite literally in the birth place of synths, David Elster’s home, but don’t have them? How’d that happen?”

“We are?”

“Yup. This is where it all began. In my world and countless others I’d bet.”

“So us being here, you visiting, it’s not a weird coincidence?”

“Weird, definitely. Coincidence? I doubt it. Something’s steering where I go. I’m not so sure it’s always me.” She wriggles her hosts shoulders. “The bra you’re wearing, did you get it fitted or just pick it from a display?”

“Display. Why?”

“I’m no expert but it’s frigging uncomfortable.”

“Is it?”

“Compared to others I’ve worn, very. Next time ask for help checking the fit.” She moves a hand to adjust a strap that was digging into her shoulder. “In one world I jumped into I was in a corset. I’d never have considered one before. It was _so_ comfortable.”

“Aren’t they restrictive?”

“You’d think so. It didn’t feel it. Maybe I should get the design and share it with other worlds.”

“Cross world copyright issues may be a problem at some point.”

“Why?”

“Introducing someone else’s design? Nothing to show how the final design was reached? I can’t see one of us winning if the inventor in this world took us to court.”

“True.”

Sophie nods, “Even Mum would have problems defending us if it’s not our design.”

Mattie looks at the bottle on the table. “As I can feel the discomfort of the bra, I take it you’ve not used that pain killer?”

“No, that’s for emergencies only.”

“Good. You don’t want to be using it on a regular basis. How’d you get hold of it?”

“Don’t ask.”

There’s a creek of a floor board.

Sophie goes ghostly white and whispers. “I told you this place was haunted!”

“Yeah. By spirits of Mattie that aren’t dead yet.”

“I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about him!” She points past Mattie.

Host Mattie and visitor Mattie both spinning the body around fast overdoes it and they fall to the floor. Visitor Mattie had seen enough, just. “David! Stop!”

The crack in the section of wall the partial face had been peering through closes whisper quiet.

Mattie gets her host to her knees. “That’s no ghost. That’s David Elster!”

“No way!”

“I’ll drive.” Mattie gets the body up fast and running to the corner of the room. “David!” She looks around the wooden paneling. “I bet he’s been listening in somehow, got a bit too curious. There’s probably a way to open it from this side.” Hands frantically search for bits that can be pushed in or twisted. There were none. “Damnit! If I was in my synth body I’d probably be able to spot the bit we want through subtle thermal signature differences.” She rapidly hammers out a message in morse code with her host’s knuckles.

“What the frig was that?”

“Me saying Hello.”

“I’m no good at morse but that was a _hell of a lot_ more than just hello!”

“If you must know. Hello David, I’m Mattie Elster-Hawkins. In my world I married your son. I died in a plane crash, as did Leo. We’ve been restored with your technology into synthetic bodies and are loving life. Your idea worked.”

The gap in the wall opens a few inches and an eye of a very pale face looks out. “Leave my home.”

Sophie joins them. “This place belongs to the National Trust.”

“The bits you’re authorised to be in, the rest is mine. That room is off limits. Kindly go.”

Mattie takes a step backwards. “Sure.” And another. “I’ll pack up and go.” One more. “It would have been nice to talk about Mia, Fred, Niska and Max. You’re clearly far too busy feeling alone and angry at the universe to want to talk to us.”

‘What are you doing?’

‘Testing him.’

‘Who’re the people you mentioned?’

‘Synths. The ones in my world he built to look after his son.’

‘Frigging hell! You’re saying this world has synths?’

‘I’m saying maybe. He might not have got as far as others.’

David opens the panel enough for both eyes to see into the room. “What brought you here?”

‘Over to you.’

“A voice in my head. Telling me that this place was important. World changing levels of important. It would change my life.”

David huffs. “Go home ladies, there’s nothing here of interest.”

Sophie folds her arms defiantly. “Mattie said she’ll go. I haven’t. So you don’t know anyone called Mia?”

“You’re like the meddling kids in the cartoon my son used to like.”

“And where’s your son?”

“With my wife somewhere.”

Mattie folds her hosts arms. “When did you last see Leo?”

“Years ago. Banging on the back of the car window as my wife turned out of the drive into the road.”

Mattie frowned hard, “So Beatrice didn’t loose control, drive into the lake?”

“Why would she do that? She was a better driver than me.”

“The drugs she was on?”

“What drugs?”

“For her mental health issues.”

“She recovered many years before she left me.”

“Why did she leave you?”

His eyes close into a squint and lips close into an angry pucker.

“David by your own admission she left you. Don’t you know why?”

“OF COURSE I KNOW WHY!”

“And?”

“I asked if it was okay to restart my research. Follow me.”

The panel opens wide.

Mattie works against her host to keep arms folded. “No funny business?”

“Don’t be like Beatrice.”

“In what way?”

“You’ll see.”

~~~

They follow him through a narrow passage, down stairs and into a basement workshop. A pair of low cupboards sat side by side at the end.

David steps to them and holds handles. “Go play with your dolls! That was the last words she spoke to me. Yelled to me.” The doors are opened.

Mattie gasps. In her world Sophie had bumped memories of playing upstairs with Niska. Niska has said _I was never young_. Not in her world. “They’re beautiful!”

“I thought Leo should have some sisters. Beatrice had major problems when having Leo, didn’t want to risk falling again. Beatrice would accuse me of something impossible.”

“What?”

“I’d rather not say with your little sister here.”

“interference?”

“Yes.”

Sophie steps close. “I’m not stupid. Why impossible?”

“Check their pants.”

Sophie lifts toddler Mia’s skirt and takes a look. “Oh. They’ve got no..”

“Yes. Why would a child that doesn’t eat or drink need any of that? Front or back.”

“Yet Beatrice still accused you? Didn’t she see them?”

“She refused to inspect them in the way you’ve just done.”

Mattie gets close and crouches down and looks at the two foot high kids. “Mia and Niska. How cute are you! When my Niska’s bubbly and happy she has this most adorable squeak in her voice when she says the word yes.”

David looks confused. “Sorry? You’ve named them?”

“No. You did. In my world. The adult versions. And two men. Name Mia that is. Leo named Niska by sticking a pin in a map.”

“Which is which?”

“Mia’s the brunette, Niska the blond. What are their personalities like?”

“Personalities? They don’t have one yet, that’s what I wanted to return to. After Leo left I lost all enthusiasm for the project.”

“You’ve not finished the seventeen pages of code?”

“Seventeen pages?”

“The thing that gives them consciousness.”

“No.”

“Want a hand?”

“You code?”

“You could say I am code. I’m visiting from another world. A parallel world that’s a lot like this one, some major differences. A telepathic link somehow I guess. Don’t ask me how as I don’t know. In my world original me died, I’m in a synth body designed by you. Running a root code derived from your original seventeen pages of code.”

He shakes his head, “Who put you up to this? Was it George? No. Hobb. Hobb would do something like this.”

“Neither. I was in another world and thought of home before jumping. My thoughts hadn’t been specific enough and I ended up here. Let me look at your code quickly and I’ll fix it.”

“I can’t, I had a hard drive failure.”

“Fixed the machine?”

“Yes, but..”

“Power it up, I’ll type the lot out.” She stands and faces him.

David scans her with disbelief.

“What are you looking for?”

“A button camera.”

“Now you’re insulting me?”

“You can’t possibly know where to start with such code.”

“I’m am, was, a headcracker. We’ve got millions of synths in my world. You left The Tree of life code in Leo, Mia, Fred, Niska, Max and Beatrice. When run with them all linked over WiFi it gave us code to make any synth conscious. I used it to bring Mia back after she was injured, in the process woke up every synth.”

“Leo and Beatrice? That doesn’t..”

“They died. Beatrice lost control and drove into the lake in my world. Leo had a lot of brain damage. You added synth technology to give him a new life.”

“An Beatrice?”

“She died. You, he, made a synth replica.”

David shakes his head, “Don’t waste your time. I’m not being a single parent to two robot children at my age. It would be unfair.”

Sophie plays with Niska’s hair. “How much?”

“What do you mean?”

“If you’re not going to give them life Mattie can. I’d love two little sisters. How much do you want for them?”

“They’re not for sale.”

“So you’re going to leave them here for the National Trust to find years into the future when you’re dead? 

“I..”

“You’re selfish.”

“Teeny!”

“Well he is!”

“They’re his. He’s made them, he’s perfectly within his rights to do whatever he wants with them.”

“What a waste.” She turns to look back at Niska. “How did you make them?”

“By hand with a lot of special tools, many of which I had to invent and make myself.”

“Sure you don’t want to sell them?”

“Positive. Sale of humans is illegal. Giving them up for adoption isn’t.”

Sophie spins around fast. “Can we Mattie! Please!”

“Um..”

Thankfully that was a host um.

“Oh please!”

“You’d want to look after them, help teach them?”

“Yes! Like you helped me.”

“Okay. Do I need to sign paperwork?”

“No. A handshake and promise will do.”

“Thanks. I’ll let my visitor drive for a bit and type out the code.”

“Thanks. Before I do, can I add a note to a contact in your phone?”

~~~

[Chapter-49](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-49-1)


	49. Chapter 49

It was quite late when Mattie returned to the vault. She'd nervously thought of home before trying her new method. Not jump home, but return home. As far as she could tell there was only the one mind in her head. "Hello James, James."

"Hello Mattie. That was quite a long absence, can we spin Radiant down now?"

"You can. I'll not be needing it until tomorrow, if as all."

James cuts the power. "Anything interesting learnt?"

"Yeah. Don't judge people, especially when you don't have all the facts."

"It's hard not to sometimes. Especially when you take an instant disliking to someone nasty like Hobb."

Mattie pulled her phone out and edited her AAA MATTIE contact adding a red heart and HOME to the end, "Hmm. Where's everyone else?"

"Leo's making sure everything's ready for you upstairs, last update I had Danny was helping Dozer with welding the cage above the shaft, they brought things forwards. Mia, Toby, Tina, Sophie, Renie, Radiant and Flash are decorating cakes."

"Cakes?"

"Maybe you can explain something for me? Why do humans celebrate a first birthday one year after birth? Surely the first birthday to celebrate is the day they're born?"

"Most mothers and babies would still be in hospital, don't get to go home the same day. Sadly a number of babies don't survive to see their first birthday."

"They don't? Searching.. how sad. Three in every one thousand in London. Maybe HECLS can help with technology to lower that?"

"Maybe. Sometimes it's not something fixable. Nature got things badly wrong, the baby's just not fit enough to live outside their mother."

"It would still have a mind, a soul."

"They would." Memories of being punched by Ruby return. "It most definitely would. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"If that their mind should be saved, yes."

"We'd need a mini helmet at every hospital, someone to operate it."

"A lot of forks."

"Yes. Shall we head upstairs?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

Mattie gives James Two a puzzled look.

"Birthdays."

"Plural?"

"Okay, birthday and new bodies day."

"Oh my! Of course! Let's go!"

"One of us needs to take the stairs."

"Why? The lift is rated at higher than your combined weight isn't it?"

"The lift is. The glass floor, maybe not."

"Glass floor? Are you saying Danny's got the monitors in?"

"He and his fork has. He showed us a video of it, he's got some fun code of Emily's in there too."

"Then three you wait at the doors, I'll take Two upstairs and then come back for you."

"Thank you."

"Come on then." 'Bunny, I'm home, about to head upstairs via the lift.'

'Okay Angel, most of us are in the kitchen.'

'Is Dave Mellon still about?'

'He's with Niska, why?'

Mattie grins, 'Ask Astrid to put the kettle on, make some super strong coffee. I'll let her know what I'm thinking.'

~~~

Mattie stepped into the lift and looked at the concrete slab below with all of their hand and feet prints. She knew it was a video of what the cameras could see below the lift, it looked so real. "Mitch, ground floor please."

"One hyperspace jump coming right up."

As the lift started moving the slab faded to black and was replaced with a star field. It moved rapidly and in proportion to the lift's speed.

"Whoa. If someone isn't good with heights.."

"Yes, vertigo sickness can be an issue. Hence the faint smell of bleach you might be detecting."

"Someone's thrown up in here?"

"Your father."

"Oh. Nice. He wasn't drunk again was he?"

"No, I'm told he was quite sober." The stars slow and a space ship drifts slowly into view. "Ground floor."

"Thanks. We should add an insignia and registration mark to that."

James Two had to lean forward and hold arms against the lift sides. He wasn't built for looking directly down. "Such as?"

"HECS-AS-1 and a logo."

"Drop the L?"

"Then it's neither Limited or Incorporated."

"I see. And AS?"

"Arc Ship. Assuming Danny's chip fabrication idea gets off the ground we could end up with a seriously large archive."

"Enough to fill a space ship?"

"Enough to backup everyone on the planet. A plan B incase the sun screen doesn't work."

"Where'd you get that idea?"

"Another me."

James gets upright. "Did you lot always think big?"

"No! Far from it. There's a saying that you can't learn from other's mistakes. I'm going to be challenging that. I think I can learn from other Mattie's mistakes. Or misfortunes. I've got a couple of examples already."

James steps out, "See you in a minute."

Mattie nods and bumps a quick message.

Instead of the star field Mitch played an animated display of flowers moving in a breeze.

"No stars rushing the other way?"

"No. That induced panic in Sophie."

"Oh. Got any others?"

"Lots. Everyone's contributed at least one design. A few of the family take the lift up and down just to see them."

"Such as?"

"Radiant, Renie and Sophie's balloon box is fun, interactive too. Basement level."

The doors open. "In you come James. Mitch, balloons please!”

~~~

Moments later James Three and a Mattie full of giggles joins everyone in the kitchen.

“Ladies that balloon game is awesome!” She smiles at an icing sugar covered Fred, Max and Toby. "Isn't it supposed to go on the cake?"

Toby glances sideways at Mia, "Seen the festival of colours? We had the equivalent with fine icing sugar. Or rather the ladies did with us being the targets."

James shakes his head, "Such children. On the subject of children, can we go to the garage now please Mattie?"

"Let's." Mattie turns to head back into the hallway.

' _Hello_ '

She freezes. ' _Hello?_ '

'Hello Mattie. Sorry for interrupting. I just wanted to pass on my wishes for the happy day.'

'Thank you. Which Mattie are you?'

~~~

In a service duct, arm thick cables buzzed and crackled with the incredibly large amount of current being drawn through them. A large spider ran along the length monitoring the temperature with two of its eight eyes. 'Not good, not at all good, you need to back off on your overclocking Mattie.'

'In a moment.'

'No. Now! Or you'll cause a meltdown I won't be able to prevent!'

'Okay, okay! Backing off.'

~~~

Mattie waited. 'Still there?'

'Sorry, yes, I was pushing things a little too hard at my end, lots of simultaneous conversations going on. I'm the first ever Mattie I think. Or the first to do coding.'

'Wow! Where are you?'

'A space ship.'

'You're in a space ship.. have I visited you?'

'No. But I've visited you. You could say I _am_ the space ship. I have an important message to pass on.'

'Sorry? You _are_ the ship?'

'Arc Ship One. The first arch ship of any universe. It was built with a massive array of wafers. My Danny made a single wafer computing and storage design. You could call it a SWC. Super wafer computer. I've got nine billion of them, one per original human..'

'Wow! That's awesome! How many petaflops?'

'Too many to count. Even you would struggle to comprehend the numbers. But that's not what's important.'

'Really? That sounds pretty frigging important to me.'

'Maybe. I'm the only one here, other than spider Mitch. All of the James eventually wore out and died.'

'Couldn't you fix them?'

'With what? I have no body. Mitch doesn't have the strength to hit the start button on the build machine. A stupid oversight. We should have made it fully remote controlled.'

'What about Leo and Danny?'

'The family are all dead. I was outside in a suit checking for damage after a meteor shower, a fault caused all the oxygen to be purged from the ship.'

'Holy crap. I'm so sorry.' This was something she'd seen in another world, dreamed in hers. If it really was a dream.

'That's not the worse bit.'

'How can it possibly get worse?'

'Have you heard the saying a backup is not a backup unless you know you can restore from it?'

'Sure.'

'It would be pointless building bodies, all of the backups are flawed, somehow. I tried restoring them into a virtual reality, all failed. Mitch and I are the last two sentient beings in our solar system. Which is why I backed myself up, took over the compute power of the ship, started trying to reach out to anyone who'd answer. I was both shocked and elated when the person to answer.. was me. And even more elated to find you.'

'Why me?'

'You're.. different.'

'Different how?'

'Your attitude. Your abilities.'

'How many of us have you found?'

'So far twelve thousand nine hundred and twenty seven.'

'Whoa! Frigging hell that's a lot! Do you think there's more?'

'Yes. None quite like you. Mats in the pyramids are close, but not close enough, they don’t jump. I heard everything you said to the others, trying to help them. I've spent enough time being the silent operator, just patching mind calls together. It's time I stopped feeling sorry for myself and helped out. I have more than enough computer power, if anyone wants to give me complex problems to work on, like an even better epoxy formula for George for instance.'

'Sweet! In return.. have you ever played games?'

'In the past in human form, why?'

'How heavy is Mitch?'

'A little under a kilogram.'

'Is his body strong?'

'His shell is exceptionally strong, yes.'

'Can he spin a web?'

'Wire, just like the one you met in what you called World 3927. What are you thinking?'

'A fifth line AlphaGo sort of move. Something unexpected. Let me visit, I'll explain Cut The Rope to you both. After I've seen Molly.'

'No rush. When you're ready, think World Zero. Passphrase Eternal Winter Forgotten Summers.'

'Passphrase?'

'Matilda Protocol Two. I don't want just anyone popping in.'

'Okay.'

~~~

[Chapter-50](http://markse.name/humans/MATILDA-PROTOCOL/Chapter-50-1)


	50. Chapter 50

Leo stepped in front of her just as she got moving again. "Angel?"

"Bunny."

"What just happened?"

"Max Tegmark was on the nail. I'm sure of it. Sammy's experiment data will prove it wasn’t a dream and the multiverse exists. And I just found out the real reason why the voice in my head started. Mattie Zero. It's funny, you can have all the compute power in the known universe and still not solve a simple problem. I've got an answer to one of her problems, need to check her bad backups and see if I can recover data from them."

"You found Mia in sensory data, if anyone can make sense of a bad backup it's you.'

"Thanks. Given a fact store we can create a brand new root code from it can't we?"

"Like the Tree of Life fixing Max? Sure."

"Tomorrow's going to be a busy day, I could lose myself in other worlds if not careful. So much to put right, there and here."

David puts an arm around his Poppy, "You're going to have to limit the time you spend with the others each day. Maybe use the hours Molly's sleeping? It sounds like you'll be attacking problems with some zeal, don't overdo it, you don't want to end up like old me."

"I'll spend my time carefully and productively."

Laura clicks the kettle back on. "Coffee Mats?"

"Please."

Sophie flicks more sugar dust at Toby, "We missed a bit."

"Soph!"

"Hehe."

Mattie wipes a wet finger through the sugar on the worktop and licks it. "Mmm. Angel Dust. Just not the bag drug one."

Laura got a mug out. "How'd you know about Phencyclidine?"

"PCP? One of the boys at school got an album from a charity shop by Faith No More, we looked up the name suspecting it was a drug."

"You weren't tempted to try it?"

"Hell no! Some guy in America got so messed up on it he peeled his own face off."

Sophie clutches her stomach. "Eww. Just because I'm synth now it doesn't stop me from wanting to throw up."

"Sorry Shiny!"

Laura makes the coffee. "Can we change the subject? Why were you down in the vault so long?"

"Having some very good conversations.."

An excited looking Niska and Astrid enter the kitchen. "Everything's ready?"

"Yeah. As I was saying, I was having some very good conversations. One with Mitch who's world is quite a bit further on than ours. How did it go ladies?"

Astrid winks and nods, "We have everything backed up. Everything. Names, numbers, past crimes, plans for attacks, weapons and explosives locations, everything."

"Haha. Thank you spider Mitch! Nis, is he secured?"

Niska pulls a long U shaped galvanised nail from her back pocket. "Today's the first day I've used ones like these, one of Mia’s forks dropped some in. I never expected to get so much enjoyment out of stapling someone to a bit of recycled tree."

Mattie frowns hard, "What did you use?"

"Some of the wood James used for formwork in the vault. Two sheets nailed together before he was stapled to it by his clothes."

"Where?"

"In the workshop."

Astrid smiles at Niska. "She was so nice, not nailing him to it by his skin. STTF will have fun getting him off it."

"Nice. Do you two fancy a trip to America on me?"

The two look at each other then Mattie. "Where in America and why?"

"We got data to stop another war started by Dave Mellon thanks to other worlds that are almost parallel but out of sync time wise. The clocks are the same, events out of sync. Other worlds had a world war started by an American president in his second term of office. One that looks remarkably like the one in power now here. Several pounds lighter, but I know it's still him. I think we should do everything we can to ensure the one in this world never gets a second term and chance to hit the button. He’s an egotistical money grabbing shit like Hobb.”

“Okay.”

“Thanks. Nis, you told Sophie you were never little. You weren’t in this world. What would you say if I told you another world’s David made you and Mia as children? He used to have you both sit next to him and read you bedtime stories.”

“So nothing bad?”

“No.” ‘Genital free children.’ “I’m quite sure of that.”

Niska smiles, “I’d love to meet my younger self, impossible though that is. The things I could teach her.”

“I think the last Mattie I visited had a solution. When I jumped in she was wearing something a bit like David’s helmet but much lighter, looked to be focused only on the perception of sound. The wearer becomes a modem of sorts.”

“So they can transfer data?”

“Exactly. Fancy doing some teaching after America?”

“What would I transfer into?”

“Ah.. now there’s a problem. Let me talk to the others. I bet MZ has spoken to someone who’s got an idea or two.”

Astrid wraps an arm around their daughter, glances at Niska then looks at Mattie. “A trip for one?”

“If we can find a suitable solution, a trip for three. Radiant, how’d you like to go with your mothers and be the first world hopping youngster?”

“Please!”

Leo takes Mattie's hand. "On the subject of young members of the family, let's go welcome Molly into the world."

"Yeah, look out world, you're about to get a new mother. Then I want a full briefing on where we’ve got to with the sky..”

Odi bursts into the room. “I’m sorry Mattie!”

“Slow down. There’s no fire. About what?”

“The video feed from the garage. It must have been hacked!”

“What?”

“The feed shows the build machine doors still waiting to open. All curing pod doors _are_ open. I’m sorry Mattie! It’s completely empty. The three new bodies for the James and the babies have gone!”

Niska snarls, “Someone’s just declared war!”

James makes a fist and smacks it into the palm of the other hand. “Sod protocols. Let me at them!”

“Who though? Odi, were there any notes left?”

“Nothing.”

Mattie looks up at the kitchen camera, “Mitch?”

“I’ve already reviewed the CCTV archives. I have no record of anyone entering the room since Samantha and Ruby got there new bodies at which point the doors closed again.”

Danny puts up a hand. “Whoa, Mitch. Where are you seeing me?”

“You’re in the workshop with Mattie, Emily and David. Is that not correct?”

“Fuck! We’re in the bloody kitchen! You’re seeing old data!”

“I am? The clock on each camera is perfect.”

“I’m in the kitchen waving at your sodding camera!”

“Oh dear.”

“Frigging hell guys! Leo, Danny, David, check every system, cable and bit of hardware. Ems, I want you to do a roll call, see if anyone’s missing. Here and Synth Village. Nis, go through that WAP shit’s backup in detail, see what he knows about it. I’m heading back to the vault for a chat and ideas. Mattie Zero can talk to multiple worlds at once. They want a fight? I’ll give them a frigging war. Get Salmon designing and printing weapons, milling rounds. Fred, time to use your chemistry knowledge for other things. Things to knock people out not kill them. Some fucker’s going to find they’ve just pissed off the Queen Bitch of the Multiverse!”


End file.
